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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 











THE GOLDEN HOUR SERIES 


A new series of books for young people, bound in extra 
cloth, with illuminated designs, illustrations, 
and title-pages made especially 
for each volume 


A LITTLE DUSKY HERO. By Harriet T. Comstock. 
THE CAXTON CLUB. By Amos K. Wells, 

THE CHILD AND THE TREE. By Bessie Kenyon 
Ulrich. 

DAISIES AND DIGGLESES. By Evelyn Raymond. 

HOW THE TWINS CAPTURED A HESSIAN. By James 
Otis, 

THE I CAN SCHOOL. By Eva A. Madden. 

MASTER FRISKY. By Clarence W. Hawkes. 

MISS DE PEYSTER'S BOY. By Etiieldred B, Barry. 
MOLLY. By Barbara Yeciiton. 

THE WONDER SHIP. By Sophie Swett, 

WHISPERING TONGUES. By Homer Greene. 


PRICE PER VOLUME, NET. 50 CENTS 


THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

NEW YORK 







HE WAS HOLDING A BASKETFUL OF WONDERFUL DAISIES 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
COt«GRE8S. 
Two Comes Recsiveo 

SEP. 12 1902 


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COPVRtQHT 

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CLASS Cl. XXa No, 

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COFf B. 


COPYBIGnT, 1902, 

By THOMAS Y. OHO WELL & CO. 


O^L-^^SOl 


CONTENTS 


CHAl’TEK I. PACK 

Daisies^ . . 5 

CHAPTER II. 

Diggleses’ 15 

CHAPTER III. 

A Dark Day for Diggleses’ 27 

CHAPTER IV. 

On the Way to the Daisies 35 

CHAPTER V. 

Katie’s First Journey in the World .... 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Whip-Poor-Will’s Call 51 

CHAPTER VII. 

Animals on a Frolic 59 

CHAPTER VIII. 

A Choice of Mothers 67 

3 


4 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IX. page 

A Young Philanthropist 78 

CHAPTER X. 

Annoying Mysteries ; 87 

CHAPTER XI. 

Insubordination 95 

CHAPTER XII. 

A Summer Drive 105 

CHAPTER XIII. 

In the Minister’s Study' 112 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Home to Diggleses’ 116 

CHAPTER’ XV. 

The Happy Ending 121 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Conclusion • . . . . 129 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES’. 


CHAPTER 1. 

DAISIES. 

There were a hundred miles between farmer 
Eddy’s orchard^ where the daisies bloomed, and 
Diggleses’ Court, where Katie lived. 

Probably nobody would have thought of 
going from one to the other, if farmer Eddy 
hadn’t fallen out of the black ox-heart cherry- 
tree. Even then this might not have happened 
if he had tumbled straight downward and broken 
a bone, instead of slipping along from branch 
to branch, till he finally landed among the dai- 
sies, with nothing worse than a sprained right 
arm. He would have preferred the broken 
bone ; “ for a break mends, and a sprain seems 
good for nothing but to try a man’s temper.” 

So would Eliza have preferred. 

Eliza was farmer Eddy’s son’s wife ; as nice 
a woman as ever nailked a cow, but as sharp of 
speech as most women are who find the milking 
of cows among the day’s tasks. She was start- 


6 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


ing for the barnyard, a glistening tin pail upon 
each arm, when she saw her father fall, and hur- 
ried to him, with grumbling compassion. 

“ Now, father Eddy, you have done it ! ” 

“ Yes, Eliza, I rather think I have.” 

“ The idea of a man of your age climbing 
trees like a squirrel ! ” 

“ Not much like a squirrel, daughter, else I 
shouldn’t be sitting on the heads of these dai- 
sies.” 

Then they both laughed, and Eliza asked : 

“ Where are you hurt, father ? I’m very 
sorry.” 

“ My right arm and side feel queer.” Then 
he looked wistfully upward into the tree from 
which he had just slipped, and added, rather 
sadly, “ The birds will get the most of Mother’s 
fruit this year. Nobody except me has picked 
it since she did ; and — nobody else shall, 
while I live.” 

As the name of “ mother ” passed the farmer’s 
lips, all the sharpness left Eliza’s face; and, 
slipping both pails to one arm, she placed the 
other under his shoulders, and helped him to 
his feet. 

“ Oh, hum ! This means a summer of idle- 
ness, I’m afraid.” 

“ What of it ? When I’m eighty, as you are. 
I’ll think it time to rest. But you’re the worst 
hand to sit still and do nothing that I ever saw. 
I wish you’d change your mind about the ox- 
hearts. The boys — ” 


DAISIES. 


7 


“ Enough, Eliza ; though you may send one 
of the boys on horseback after the doctor. May- 
be we could fix this arm all right ourselves ; 
only the doctor needs a little cash, same as the 
rest of us. You go on and milk. I’ll sit on the 
porch and wait.” 

“ Father, how can you always get sweet out 
of bitter? Next you know, you’ll be saying 
’twas providential that you fell out the tree.” 

“ I can say it already. All the time I was 
sliding down it seemed that every little twig 
was stretching out to save me from death ; ” and 
he cast a grateful glance toward those helpful 
branches. 

The black ox-heart was a very old tree. 
Farmer Eddy and Mother had planted it to- 
gether when they first came to live at Uplands, 
and she had always gathered its cherries. Its 
gnarled boughs were as familiar to her as her 
own kitchen floor ; and she knew just where 
the ladder could rest in safety, while she climbed 
to pluck her fruit. Indeed, so sure-footed and 
supple was Mother that nobod}^ quite realized 
that she was, in fact, an aged woman, till on one 
summer evening, sitting in her chair beneath her 
tree, she quietly fell asleep and waked no more. 

Eliza walked with the farmer to the porch, 
and settled him in his rocker, where he leaned 
back and closed his eyes, lest they should betray 
the pain he was suffering. Then she hurried 
down the lane, calling as she went, in shrill, 
far-reaching tones : , 


8 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


“ Reuben ! Reuben ! Sim-e-on ! E-l-i ! ” 

For a time there was no response. The three 
lads were sitting on the bank of the run, com- 
fortably resting after a day’s work in plowed 
ground, and dabbling their mud-stained feet in 
the cooling waters. 

Yet when the shouts continued, Reuben 
nudged Eli, and ordered : 

“ Go, boy. Ma needs you.” 

“ Go yourself.” 

“ I’m tired.” 

“ So’m I.” 

“ Sim, then.” 

But Simeon stretched his fat body backward 
on the grass and declined. 

“ I’ve got some figuring to tliink out for 
Grandpa.” 

This boy was considered the clever one of the 
family, and was frequently consulted by his 
elders concerning their simple accounts. Which 
fact made him feel his importance even more 
than did his mother’s ambition to train him for 
a minister, and his self-conceit was an amuse- 
ment to the neighbors. 

But he was not so amusing to his brothers. 
As Reuben reluctantly rose, he grumbled: 

“ Hmm ! If you’ve got one of your lazy 
’ thinking fits,’ I might as well go. Yes, ma ; 
I’m coming. All right.” 

“ Indeed, it’s not all right. Saddle Joe as 
quick as you can, and go for Doctor Gray. 
Grandpa’s fallen out the cherry-tree.” 


DAISIES, 


9 


“ Whew ! Is he hurt? Why saddle ? Bare- 
back’s easier.” 

“ No. If the doctor hasn’t his horse hitched 
up he can ride here on Joe. It’s a bad hurt, I 
guess ; though grandpa’s plucky and won’t 
complain.” 

“ He’s queer about that old tree. I asked 
him last night to let me pick it, but he 
wouldn’t.” 

Reuben ran to the night pasture behind the 
old barn and whistled to the sedate gray horse, 
who came obediently, and in another moment 
was riding down the road, with fear in his 
heart. 

“ What if grandpa should die ! What should 
we do without him? ” 

However, he was not to die. He was only to 
be left half-helpless, for the first time realizing 
his age and grieving over his uselessness. It 
was thus that the new minister found him, a 
week later, and exclaimed : 

“ Why, farmer Eddy ! are you suffering so 
much? I had hoped you were getting on all 
right.” 

“ Oh, I’m right enough, physically ; but it’s 
hard not to do my share of the work, with help 
so scarce and Samuel — what he is. I’ve 
always done the most of the haying, and now 
— Well, I know there’s a lesson in it some- 
where, only I can’t yet make out what it is.” 

“ You will. Ah ! how cool and beautiful this 
orchard looks. Let’s sit under that tree, where 


10 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


the bench is so invitingly placed, and the daisies 
are so lovely. I felt I could not stay in my 
study this morning, so walked over to bring you 
some reading matter.” 

Pleased by the clergyman’s attention and ad- 
miration of the daisies, the old-time smile re- 
turned to the farmer’s face. He exclaimed, 
with a sort of chuckle : 

“ They are pretty, but you’d best not let Eliza 
hear you say so. She doesn’t like them, for 
they spoil the hay. Though, since mother loved 
them, they’re safe enough. Poor Eliza ! Life 
hasn’t been any too smooth for her these few 
years back.” 

“If not too painful for you to discuss. I’d 
like to hear the story of your trouble, farmer 
Eddy,” said the visitor, with sympathy. 

“ There’s little to tell. He was a good lad, 
always, was my son Daniel, but a rover by 
nature. When he was fourteen he ran away 
to sea. But he came home sometimes, and 
when he grew up and married Eliza he stayed 
on land for years; though he hated farming, 
and spent them mostly in peddling and exhort- 
ing, for he was a religious man. After little 
Dan was born he shipped again in the old 
Navigator ; and the very next week she foun- 
dered off the Newfoundland reefs, and every 
soul went down.” 

The minister stooped and quietly gathered a 
cluster of the daisies that grew about their feet. 
“ Maybe not all were lost,” he said. “ He might 


DAISIES. 


11 


have been saved, and carried to some foreign 
port.” 

The farmer shook his head. 

“ No ; that would have been a miracle. Eliza 
is a capable woman. A trifle sharp of speech, 
but sound and sweet at heart. I leave the run- 
ning of the farm to her, as far as I can, for it 
helps her to live. Samuel and Seraphine — did 
ever you hear such a name for a grown woman, 
or one that fitted its owner so well ? — are ‘ our 
hired help.’ The boys are an average crop, save 
Simeon, who’s smart and knows it. His mother 
hopes to make a parson of him, but 1 reckon 
she’s got a job on hand if she does.” 

The minister smiled and rose, plucking another 
handful of daisies as he did so. 

“ These are certainly the largest I ever saw. 
When I go to the city next Monday, I wish 
you’d give me a basketful to carry with me.” 

“ Gladly. B ut what for ? ” 

“ To give my little street waifs. Some of the 
very ones who are mentioned in this magazine ; ” 
and he selected one from the pile, and placed it 
in the old man’s hand. Then he went away. • 

Somewhat later Eliza, passing through the 
orchard to gather cherries for a pie, was ex- 
citedly signalled to come beneath the ox-heart, 
to the empty seat beside her father. 

“ Daughter, here’s something beats all you 
ever heard ! ” 

So she listened while he read a description, 
which the minister had marked, of a certain 
tenement-house in the great city. 


12 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ Father, do you believe that ? ” 

“ I must. The minister himself wrote it. 
He tells the truth.” 

“ Five hundred people in one house 1 That’s 
more than all who live in Middle Valley put 
together. You couldn’t crowd all of our towns- 
folk into one building. You couldn’t do it. 
They’d suffocate.” 

• “ Think of it ! Four families in one room. 

Just a chalk-line to partition the four homes, 
or, at best, a calico curtain. My soul! and 
here have we — all this ! ” spreading his. hands 
outward, to indicate the extent of landscape 
around them. 

“Well, it’s interesting; but reading won’t 
give my boys the cherry-pie I promised them 
for dinner.” 

“ Give them the cherries without the pie. 
Hear this.” 

So she listened for another five minutes, at 
the end of which farmer Eddy tossed the pam- 
phlet aside, and sprang up with the enthusiasm 
of an inspiration. 

“ Eliza, when the minister goes to the city, 
next Monday, I’m going with him ! ” 

Eliza rose too, so quickly that her basin fell 
to the ground. 

“ Father Eddy I are you crazy ? ” 

“ No, no, lass ; only just coming toi my senses. 
I believe this is the very reason the Lord let me 
fall out of this ox-heart tree.” 

“ What an idea ! And you never went to 
the city of New York in all your life ! ” 


DAISIES. 


13 


“ Time I did, then ! ” 

“ Never was on the steam-cars, let alone the 
steamboat. You’ll have to risk both if you 
do it.” 

“ I’ll risk them.” 

“ But, father ! Think a minute. What would 
mother say ? ” 

“ She would say, ‘ Go. It is the Lord’s lead- 
ing.’ ” 

Eliza went tremblingly away; and of her 
foreboding state of mind between that hour and 
the memorable Monday, nothing need be said. 
Yet the morning finally arrived; and, feeling as 
if things were quite unreal, Reuben helped his 
grandfather into the wagon, and drove old Joe 
to the far-away station, where the minister was 
awaiting them upon the platform as calmly as 
if a hundred mile journey by rail and river were 
a very simple matter. 

The train arrived, there were friendly fare- 
wells, the travelers disappeared within one of 
the cars, and the engine pulled out again, leav- 
ing Reuben to drive home alone, and to wonder 
why the departure of one simple old man had 
such power to dim the brightness of the sun- 
shine. 

But his mother comforted him after her 
fashion: — 

“ Yes, my son, it does seem sort of desolate ; 
but never mind. One can get used to any- 
thing. I’ll give you a chicken dinner, with a 
roly-poly pudding. If we can’t go to York, 


14 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


there’s no reason why we shouldn’t enjoy good 
victuals.” 

Meanwhile, in blissful excitement, a childlike 
smile on his fine old face, farmer Eddy sat 
close by the minister’s side, and was whirled 
away and away, through novel scenes and 
sounds, toward a big, big city, and a small, 
small girl named Katie. 


DIGGLESES\ 


15 


CHAPTER 11. 

DIGGLESES’. 

Higgles’ Court, commonly known as Dig- 
gleses’, was a little pocket of an alley, quite 
too short and narrow to be named a street, or 
marked down on the city map. The Court 
was so contracted, and the houses on each side 
and across its inner end so very tall, that the 
sunshine never could get into it at any time of 
day or year ; and, as if to add worse to bad, 
the towering tenements were connected by iron 
bridges, or passage-ways, above the Court, thus 
joining the buildings into one. 

At every story were several of these bridges, 
always swarming with the tenants of “ north ” 
or “ south.” They were more used than even 
the rusty fire-escapes which the law compelled, 
and sometimes got so crowded that a baby — 
or, occasionally, a careless adult — fell over 
into the depth below. 

Yet Diggleses’ was not without some bright- 
ness. At its open end, across West Street, 
there was a tiny wharf, past which the Hudson 
flowed, and where the sunshine found a resting- 
place. By a legal quarrel of some people some- 
where, the wharf was no longer used, except by 


16 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


the Diggles’ Court children and a few of its 
quietest tenants. 

Then there was Katie. 

Having both the wharf and Katie, there were 
some mothers in Diggleses’ who felt rich in- 
deed, though they did have to toil eighteen 
hours out of the twenty-four and with little 
food to sustain them. But, because of these 
two bright things, they clung tenaciously to 
their wretched quarters ; for the river brought 
to these mothers’ little ones a breath from the 
meadows above and kept them strong; while 
Katie kept them safe. 

She was on the wharf at noontide of the 
Monday when farmer Eddy went to New York ; 
and after rescuing one of her six youngest 
babies, as it was about to fall over into the- 
water, had ranged them in a row against a 
plank, and was a trifle flushed by her exer- 
tions. 

“ Oh, dear. Toddles ! you are the wobbliest 
one ! Here you are going on three months, if 
you’re a day ; yet you will no more sit up stiff 
than ‘ Smarty ’ yonder.” Here she glanced 
affectionately toward a man lying asleep a 
few feet away. “ Now there’s Timmy Brady, 
just four months, can help himself a heap, and 
eat a crust good’s the next one — when he can 
get it,” she finished cautiously. 

At the mention of crusts, Timmy held out 
his hands with a pretty, coaxing motion that 
went straight to Katie’s heart. 


DIGGLESES\ 


17 


“No, you precious; ’tisn’t crust-time yet. 
There, Mary Jane, you lean against Miranda. 
There isn’t any wobble to her, and that’s lucky, 
too, poor thing ; ’cause being like she is, she’s 
just right for an end of the row, to keep all the 
rest up. If she should happen to topple over 
sometime, you’d all go down like that pile of 
bricks I set on end to play with. But she’ll 
not happen. Poor Miranda I ’most wish she 
would.” 

Here Katie sighed; and just then a daisy 
fell at her feet. 

She sprang up, to find two strangers smiling 
down upon her ; though after a second glance 
she saw that only one was strange — the gentle- 
man with the long white beard and mild blue 
eyes. The other had been at the wharf before, 
and Katie recognized him with a scream of 
delight. He was holding a basketful of just 
such wonderful daisies as had fallen beside 
her. 

“Oh, sir! I — oh— I — 0 — 0 — H!” 

“ Yes, exactly, Katie. Glad to see me? ” 

“ Oh I so glad I can hardly breathe ! I’ve 
been wishing I could tell you. That nickel 
you gave me bought a bottle of milk for little 
Jacob, who, you know, couldn’t eat crusts, and 
he got well. ’Cause some the folks saw how he 
liked it, and they put together and bought one 
every day for a whole week. Think of that I 
Now he’s getting as fat as — as Miranda, ’most. 
But those flowers! Who they for? A hospi- 


18 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


tal? Take ’em to Bellvue, ’cause that’s the 
one most of us go to. There’s some of us 
there now. Oh, please ! ” 

“ These are for no hospital, my dear ; they 
are for a ‘ Little Mother ’ named Katie, to do 
with as she wishes.” 

The child’s eyes grew big and her cheek 
paled. Had the basket held loaves of bread 
she would have been less surprised. Then 
down went the round, freckled face, and the 
daisies were watered by almost the first tears 
which Diggleses’ Katie had shed since she had 
been found a wailing baby on the stones of the 
Court — a waif from nobody knew where. 

“ Why, Katie ! Why — why, Katie ! ” cried 
the minister, distressed. 

Sob, sob, sob. Then kisses ecstatic, and in 
their fierceness menacing to the freshness of the 
ox-eyes ; and more sobs and tears. 

This was dreadful. When the new minister 
had fancied he was carrying a basketful of 
pleasure, to have it turn out a basketful of woe ! 
The poor man was at his wits’ end to know 
how to soothe such grief, when the weeper 
suddenly looked up. 

“ Why, whatever made me do that ! I’ve 
never done it before ! ” she cried. 

“ I can’t imagine.” 

“ I can. It’s too much joy coming at once,” 
said farmer Eddy, laying his hand on Katie’s 
rough curls, and smiling through the mist in 
his own eyes. 


DIGGLESES\ 


19 


“ Can you ? Did you ever cry on your 
daisies, too ? ” 

“ I’ve done worse. I’ve fallen on them. 
Broken their pretty heads short off, poor 
things.” 

“ My I How did it happen ? ” 

“Well, I climbed a cherry-tree, and then 
fell out of it. I’ve a dim sort of notion that I 
climbed up a farmer and tumbled down a 
missionary.” 

“ Sir ? Oh ! I hope not.” 

“ What? Why do you hope that ? ” 

“ I don’t like them. None of us do.” 

“ Why, Katie ! Do you know what even the 
word ‘ missionary ’ means ? ” asked the minister. 

“ Yes, sir, I know lots about them. They’re 
the folks that come and tell the mothers to go 
to church, and keep themselves tidy, and use 
more soap and water and — and do things that 
cost money ! when the poor dears haven’t 
enough to buy breakfast, save a yesterday’s 
roll, or a cup of second-hand coffee, of a 
Sunday. Oh ! I know them, and I hate them, 
so I do ! ” she ended vehemently, her laughing 
eyes now filled with an angry light. 

The minister was so shocked that he had 
to sit down ; and did so — without looking — 
upon Miranda. 

That phlegmatic infant uttered no protest, 
but calmly turned her eyes upon the expanse of 
broadcloth thus submitted to her view. 

Not so calm was Katie. While one hand 


20 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


still clutched the visitor’s gift, with the other 
she vigorously jerked him to his feet. 

“Why — of all things! I know she can’t 
move around much, but she can squashy same’s 
another one ! ” 

“ Dear me ! have I hurt her ? ” 

“ Guess not. She’s looking at the flowers.” 

The new minister took one from the basket, 
and tendered it as a peace offering to Miranda. 
But again he was corrected by the wiser Katie. 

“ Don’t you know better’n to give a baby 
things like that ? ” 

“ No. Fact is, my experience with infants 
is rather limited.” 

“Well, any time you’re tending ’em don’t 
give ’em things they mustn’t eat. They put 
everything they get into their mouths. If the 
mouth is big enough, and Miranda’s is. She’d 
have put that posy in, and the long stem would 
have choked her, and ‘ Opium Molly,’ her 
mother, ’d have beat me when she heard it. 
When she’s ‘ under ’ she’s all right, and as 
pleasant as Miranda ; but when she’s ‘ out from 
under ’, she’s awful. Don’t ever give a baby 
anything to hurt it, will you ? ” 

“ I’ll try not.” 

By this time farmer Eddy was also looking 
about for a seat. He had walked some distance, 
and his valise was heavy. He wondered why he 
had brought it, since they were to go home on 
the morrow. Katie saw his fatigue, and placing 
her precious basket on the wharf, promptly 


DIGGLESES\ 


21 


piled her bricks into a snug heap at one corner. 
Pushing the old man gently down upon them, 
she remarked ; — 

“ There. You’ll find that prime. I fix ’em 
that way when one of the mothers runs out here 
for a second, to me and the babies ; and now, 
if you’ll take care of the children a minute. I’ll 
go up Court and give the daisies away.” 

The minister interposed. “ Wait, Katie. 
We’d like to go with you. This gentleman, 
Mr. Eddy, has come a hundred miles on pur- 
pose to see Diggles’ Court, and how so many 
people can live there. Besides, I’d also like to 
see the poor things when they get their posies.” 

Again there was that flash of indignation in 
Katie’s eyes. Nobody enjoys being classed a 
“ poor thing,” even if the statement is true. 
But maternal anxiety banished the anger. 

“We couldn’t all go, and they were his 
flowers first, you said. So you just stay and 
watch the babies and ‘ Smarty,’ who sometimes 
rolls over and near falls in. The old man may 
come.” 

Seizing the farmer’s hand, she hurried him 
forward to the crossing of the street between 
the wharf and Court, into the very midst of its 
crowding vehicles. There was no break in the 
endless line of drays and wagons, and the noise 
of surface and elevated cars was distracting to 
his untrained ears. 

“ Why, my child I It’s dreadful ! Like two, 
three, funeral processions passing at once. Do 


22 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


wait till they stop. I’m afraid. I don’t want 
to be run over.” 

“But they never stop, never; so we can’t 
wait. I’ll take care of you. I’m not afraid.” 

They reached the Court, and he breathed 
again, though without much comfort. The 
odors of Diggleses’ were very different from 
the airs of Uplands, and farmer Eddy hurried 
forward, now as anxious to be through his visit 
as he had been to make it. 

“ Poor things, poor things I ” he murmured 
softly, though Katie heard. 

“ I s’pose we are ; but we don’t like to be 
told of it. Would you? No; not that way 
— but this side. We’re ‘south’ folks, we are. 
The ‘ north ’ side ones are Rushing Jews, and 
Poles, and things like that. We ‘southers’ 
are all ’Mericans, or German, or Irish.” 

Thus farmer Eddy learned that there is an 
aristocracy everywhere in a great city, even in 
a Diggleses’ Court ; and thus guided, he made a 
timid tour of all the “ south ” side. Such stairs, 
such darkness, such dirt ! At first, he was half- 
benumbed by what he saw, and in constant 
terror of falling. With his sound arm he clung 
tightly to his leader, but gradually, as she moved 
from room to room, even from corner of room 
to other corner, he forgot all, save the way in 
which she was received, and the pleasure her 
gift of the flowers gave. She passed nobody 
by, yet apportioned but one bloom to each. 

“Must make them go ’round. Mis’ Brown. 
’Twouldn’t do, not, you know.” 


DIGGLE8ES\ 


23 


“ No, indeed, lassie. I’ll stitch my seams 
twice as fast now with that ox-eye on the ma- 
chine beside me. Blessings on you, child ! ” 

It was plain to see that everybody loved 
Katie, and that each of these poor homes might 
be hers for the asking ; yet all were too busy 
to pause in their ceaseless and ill-paid toil. 
Seamstresses, tailors, flower-makers, — it was 
hurry, hurry, hurry, with them all. Looking 
back over his own long life of quiet industry, 
farmer Eddy felt that day as if he had never 
known what labor really meant. 

Finally, the basket was empty, and they re- 
turned to the Court. 

“ Why, Katie ! you have kept none for your- 
self ! ” he cried. 

“ Course not ; there wasn’t enough to quite 
go round, even so.” 

“ Dear heart, dear heart ! ” and so astonished 
was he, by her generosity, that he scarcely 
noticed how she guided him back to the wharf 
and the minister — her deputized nurse. 

He had done very well,, considering ; though 
a few of the babies were dislodged, and had to 
be set up again’ — notably. Toddles, whose pro- 
pensity for getting out of place was as great as 
Miranda’s for staying in it. The old farmer 
would have found the row of infants an amus- 
ing sight, had he not been tormented by a desire 
to help them. When one of them began to cry 
he remembered little Dan, at home, and that 
his grief could commonly be comforted by some 


24 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


food dainty. “ Baby Dan,” they had called him, 
though, in comparison with Katie’s charges, he 
seemed now quite adult. 

Suddenly, he remembered his valise. With 
eager, left-handed awkwardness, he unfastened 
the ancient bag, and emptied before the aston- 
ished girl more good things than she had ever 
seen at a time, save through a restaurant 
window. 

“ There, child. Go ahead and eat your 
dinner.” 

Katie was very hungry, though she had not 
fully realized it till she saw all those cakes 
and sandwiches. Then her mouth watered, 
and she turned half-faint with eagerness. Yet 
she conquered her longing. She had had a sort 
of breakfast, she reflected. “ Opium Molly ” 
had come home at daybreak with a bundle of 
broken food, and had shared it with her baby’s 
nurse. But Katie knew that there were some 
children in Diggleses’ who had had no break- 
fast, it might be even no supper. They should 
feast now! they should, indeed. 

With a twinkle of brown legs, the girl darted 
through the string of just then blockaded 
wagons, and they heard her calling excitedly 
in the Court: 

“ Children I children I Every hungry child 
get into line and follow me ! ” 

No other cry would have been so instantly 
obeyed. Almost before her visitors realized 
that she was gone, she was back with a horde 


DIGGLESES\ 


25 


of youngsters at her heels. Few of them were 
round and rosy like Katie, and but few of their 
small faces seemed childlike as hers. Pinched, 
careworn, and hollow-eyed, they swarmed over 
Eliza’s good food, fought for, and devoured it. 
Almost the last vestige had disappeared when 
Katie remembered “ Smarty,” so called in deris- 
ion of his witlessness. Ever since this unfor- 
tunate had drifted into Diggleses’ she had been 
his self-constituted guardian ; and now, just in 
time, she snatched a last sandwich and a frag- 
ment of seed-cake for him, — the last, a dainty 
of peculiar flavor, original with its maker. 

The man’s face was towards the river, quite 
away from the strangers, who, indeed, had scant 
interest in him. Their thought was for the little 
ones ; and again the farmer’s eyes were dimmed 
by a troublesome moisture. To banish this, he 
remarked, jestingly: 

“ Katie, you make me think of our white 
rooster, ‘ General W ashington.’ At feeding- 
time he will never eat till he has clucked to- 
gether all the other fowls in the barnyard. The 
boys say they never do see him eat anything, 
though he’s as plump as you are.” 

“ Tell me about him,” begged the little girl, 
dropping down at the farmer’s feet. 

Whereupon he gave a vivid description of his 
home and its belongings, while she listened in 
breathless interest. When he ceased speaking 
her hands were tightly clasped and her eyes 
were full of longing. 


26 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ Oh ! how I wish I could see it all I ” 

“ So do I, my child,” echoed the old man, 
heartily. 

There was a moment of silence, during which 
the pair regarded one another keenly. At 
length, said Katie : 

“ Well, if you wish so, and I wish so, why 
can’t I?” 

The question was simple enough, but farmer 
Eddy found it difficult to answer. All at once 
he remembered Eliza. 


A DARK DAY FOR DIGGLE!SES\ 27 


CHAPTER III. 

A DARK DAY FOR DIGGLESES’. 

To Katie, the dearest hour of the day was 
sunset. By then the children had mostly fallen 
asleep, and there was nothing to interrupt her 
own day-dreams, which, despite the hardness of 
her lot, she enjoyed as do more fortunate small 
people. 

That Monday evening her babies were flat 
upon the planks, quite happy and content, while 
beside them played a group of older children, 
who also liked to be where Katie was, and were 
quick to respond to her present quiet mood. 
Even “Smarty” sat upright, his dark face 
lighted by the flowing river, and his eyes fixed 
upon a heart-shaped cake that he fumbled in 
his fingers. Indeed, the little cake seemed to 
possess a fascination for him. He did not at- 
tempt to eat it, and, after toying with it a while, 
again stored it in his pocket. Then he dozed 
again, while Katie talked, — sometimes to him, 
but oftener to her friend, the sun. 

“ You see, ‘ Smarty,’ I’m in trouble. I don’t 
want to go away and leave you and the babies ; 
and yet, how can I help it? If you’d only heard 
what the old man said ! When I think of the 


28 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


white rooster, and the cherries in the trees, and 
tlfe daisies in the grass, I just must go. If you 
could only talk to me, or even the dear sun 
had a real voice and would. But he’s tired, 
poor thing, and is going to sleep away yonder 
behind Jersey City. Well, ’tisn’t till to-mor- 
row, anyway. I heard them say they were 
going home on the steamboat, on this same 
river. I’ll just think it out for myself, and settle 
it one way or other.” 

Whereupon, in Katie’s heart, there began a 
fierce battle with self, and it was almost the 
first time in her life that she had had such war- 
fare to wage. She was such a busybody, so full 
of other people’s needs and troubles, that she 
hadn’t thought about her own. Yet dear, kind- 
hearted farmer Eddy, who would give no crea- 
ture pain if he could help it, had all unconsciously 
roused her to discontent. 

“I don’t know who’d mind the babies if 
I went,” pondered the child. “As for you, 
‘ Smarty,’ you’d get kicked out and sent to 
the Island. Who’d carry the work home if I 
wasn’t here to make you do it? You are so big 
and strong you can pack fifty coats at once. 
That’s why the folks give you your living, 
’cause they daren’t not if you take their work. 
Oh ! speak to me, man ! ” 

But he did not, and she presently addressed 
her own bare feet, stretched out before her. 

“ How would you feel, trotters, to be walk- 
ing on that soft grass ’stead of stones ? And 


A DARK DAY FOR DIGGLFSES\ 


29 


water, maybe much as a hydrant full, to dip 
yourselves in. Cherries in my mouth, my very 
own mouth, and daisies in my hands. Pick 
them myself, heaps, and heaps, and heaps. Oh I 
I must, I must ! ” 

She failed to remember that farmer Eddy had 
not invited her to take this journey she pros- 
pected, nor mentioned the particular boat by 
which he was to sail. He had seemed uncom- 
fortable after that question of hers, and. he and 
the minister had gone away, saying good-by in a 
hurry. They had carried the empty bag and 
basket with them, and apparently been more 
concerned about the safe crossing of the street 
and climbing of the stairs to the elevated sta- 
tion, than anything else. 

“ Oh, dear ! It does tire me to think so 
hard. I’d rather things would just happen 
themselves. I guess I’ll go to sleep, too ; ” 
and the perplexed little maid dropped her head 
upon Miranda’s fat body, knowing it would 
prove a soft and immovable pillow. 

The sun disappeared behind the opposite 
city ; the gas and electric lamps were lighted ; 
and after a long while — near midnight, indeed 
— the mothers came down to the old wharf, 
sorted out their sleeping children, and carried 
them away in silence. But nobody disturbed 
either “Smarty” or his “guardian angel,” 
Katie ; and the pair slumbered dreamlessly till, 
in the very early morning, the drays and beer- 
wagons recommenced their wearisome rumble. 


30 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


Then a fresh breeze touched the girl’s cheek. 
To her keen imagination it seemed to have 
come straight from that upland meadow, of 
which she had learned, and, for an instant, she 
fancied she could hear “ General Washington ” 
crowing to his family, “ Time to get up ! 
Time to get up ! ” 

In any case it cleared the tangles from her 
brain; and when she had sprung to her feet, 
she had fully decided on her course. Always 
a happy creature, she had never been so happy 
as at that moment. Catching “ Smarty’s ” 
ragged shoulder, slie shook him with all her 
strength. 

“ Wake up, man ! I’ve something to tell 
you ! ” _ . 

Then she took his cake from his pocket, and 
forced it into his hand. 

“ Now eat your breakfast and listen. I’m 
going away ; I’m going to find the woman that 
made this cake, and if she’s as nice as the man 
who brought it. I’ll come back and get you. 
Do you hear ? ” 

“ Smarty ” had begun to munch the cake ; 
but now with a sudden, animated gesture, he 
leaned forward, and thrust the last fragment into 
Katie’s own mouth. She would have refused 
it if she had had time ; but the thing was over 
and done, before she realized it. 

“ Oh ! I oughtn’t to have had that ! Though 
it was prime. But I must be moving.” 

All Katie’s movements were swift and sure. 


A BARK BAY FOR BIGGLFSES\ 31 


and she now darted into the dusky homes of 
her life-long friends, calling loudly : 

“Get up, everybody ! It’s time, and I’m 
going away ! ” 

They roused at her summons with the guilty 
feeling of busy folk, who have idled too long, 
and their hearts sank at her words ; because 
they knew their little maid always did what she 
said she would. Though one protested: 

“ Going away, child? You? why, you belong 
to Diggleses’. It couldn’t do without you.” 

From floor to floor she sped, across the 
crowded bridges, into the despised “north” 
side, and everywhere the unwelcome message 
^ she carried was supplemented by the more 
cheerful statement : 

“ But I’m coming back again. I’m just 
going to find a place for us all.” 

Then over again to her own “south side,” 
eagerly directing : 

“ Everybody get the work ready, right away. 
‘ Smarty ’ and I’ll carry steady till noon, ’cause 
I s’pose the boats don’t go till after that. Then 
I’ll quit. Have to keep the babies yourselves, 
won’t you ? Never mind. If I find it’s like 
the old man said. I’ll be back soon’s I can. 
Just to think ! Going, going, going ! ” 

The heavy hearts began to lighten as the 
workers packed their bundles for Katie’s last 
trip with them to the shops, where they were 
due. If she would go, she would also come 
again, for she was trustworthy in word and deed. 


32 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


Where would they find a messenger to take her 
place ? Who, like her, would always bring 
their scanty wages back to them, correct to the 
last cent? Well, while she was off now on 
her helpful errands, somebody had a bright 
thought. The whir and bur-r-r of somebody’s 
machine suddenly ceased, and its operator 
cried to her room-mate : 

“ Let’s make up a purse and pay her way ! ” 

There is no luxury the poor so much enjoy 
as giving. So the notion sped like wildfire. 
Those who had a nickel gave a cent, and those 
who had a quarter gave a dime. The origina- 
tor of the plan gave what was more precious 
still, — her time ; making a room-to-room can- 
vass on her collecting tour ; finally, returning to 
lay before her room-mate the wonderful sum of 
one whole dollar ! 

“ Yes. It lacked just three cents, and Polish 
Thaddeus gave them. Fact — fact! Yet never 
before did he give even a crust away. Now, to 
make up my lost hour.” 

However, more time still was to be lost at 
Diggleses’ that day; for when the mid-day 
came, there gathered about Katie, at Jones’s 
door, many of those who had contributed to 
her farewell gift, determined to see her bonny 
face when she received it, and to say good-by 
— reckless, for once, of wasted minutes. 

Cried the little maid, again and again ; 

“ Oh, dear I Oh, dear ! How could you ? 
But you oughtn’t. Yes, I know you oughtn’t. 


A DARK DAY FOR DIGGLESES\ 


33 


Though, thank you, every single one. To buy 
a ticket on a steamboat — me — Diggleses’ 
Katie ! A ticket all my own. Oh, my heart, 
my heart ! ” 

As if they stung her, she whisked away the 
tears, which were coming into her big brown 
eyes. How she did hate to cry, nor would she 
in the presence of all those shining faces, hag- 
gard indeed, but for the moment, beautiful 
with the love that lay behind them. 

“ I mustn’t stay another minute, darlings ! 
Good-by, good-by ! ” 

With that she was off up West Street, her 
ragged scarlet frock gleaming for an instant 
between the sidewalk’s obstructions, then 
utterly lost to the straining vision of Diggleses’ 
toilers, who wearily turned to their tasks again. 

Her great heart almost bursting with its 
mingled joy and woe, yet with a directness of 
purpose wholly characteristic, Katie’s bare feet 
sped over several blocks of hot pavement, 
seeking one she knew. There was a certain 
thing she had long ago determined to have, if 
ever it were in her power, and now it was. 
Soon she met the man she sought, a vender of 
that cheap ice-cream, called “ hokey-pokey.” 
This mixture, so sweet to the palate of the 
street arab, commonly retails at one cent a 
plate; and Katie vainly tried to picture what 
one hundred plates would look like if she 
could see them stretched away from that cor- 
ner, down toward Diggleses’. But even her 


34 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


imagination failed to grasp a situation so un- 
expected, and she thrust her handful of coins 
toward the vender, gasping in her eagerness : 

“ A hundred plates ! A hundred plates ! A 
dollar is a hundred cents.” 

“ My fathers ! You f You — mean — it ? ” 
stammered the seller, amazed. 

“ Quick ! Quick ! Before they catch me and 
find out. A hundred plates for Diggleses’. You 
haven’t half so many? Never mind. Go! Go 
quick. They’ll find the dishes, don’t fear. Only 
— GO I ” 

“ No, no I No, no, little gell ! If you’ve stole 
the money and are afraid you’ll get found out, 
I’m not risking arrest, too, I’m not! No, siree ! 
Not by a jugful ! ” 

Alas, poor Katie ! Akthe very moment when, 
for the first time in her life, she had it in her 
power to be extravagantly generous, she was 
also, for the first time, to be accounted a — thief. 


ON THE WAY TO THE DAISIES. 35 


CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE WAY TO THE DAISIES. 

For a moment the two confronted each other. 
While the vender saw no signs of guilt in 
Katie’s face, she was wondering how such a 
wrong idea had gotten into his head. 

“ Look here, Ice-Cream John. I know you, 
if you don’t know me. I’m Diggleses’ Kate. 
Listen. I’m telling it straight, and I’m in a 
hurry. I’m going away, and my folks raised 
this whole dollar to pay my fare. But I can’t 
take it, ’cept to do something back for them 
that they’d never do for themselves. So I want 
you to go there with the treat. I’ll wait for 
you to. You ask the first one you meet, and if 
it isn’t so, you can keep the whole dollar — so 
there.” 

The vender knew Katie by reputation. If 
this were she, it was all right ; yet wonder kept 
him silent for a moment longer, till she impa- 
tiently exclaimed : 

“ Oh ! won’t you please ever start ? ” 

“ Yes, little gell. I’ve harked to you, now you 
to me. I’ll take the stuff to Diggleses’, but I 
won’t take no dollar, I won’t. This here is 
what I call wholesale, this is. I’ll take half- 


36 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


rates, I will, and I’ll give good measure, too. 
Hold on — ” 

For in her delight Katie had begun a fantas- 
tic promenade. 

“ You don’t get off that way, Diggleses’ 
Kate ! How’d I look, facin’ all them customers, 
and havin’ to own you never tasted a spoonful 
yourself? Well, I guess not I Not Ice-Cream 
John. No knowin’ what a trade this transac- 
tion ’ll lead up to. Yes, you’ve got time enough. 
Here’s a plate for yourself, double portion, an’ 
askin’ pardon for suspicionin’ you. An ice- 
cream man learns to be mighty scarey who he 
trusts. There ; ain’t that the best thing you’ve 
put into your little mouth to-day ? ” 

Katie assented that it was. She might have 
truthfully added that she had tasted no other 
food of any sort. Which proves the disadvan- 
tage of having too many homes, even poor ones. 
For in the excitement of the child’s departure, 
every mother had quite forgotten such a trivial 
matter as breakfast, nor had Katie thought to 
mention it. 

When she had emptied her plate, the vender 
returned her fifty cents as he had promised, 
bade her good-by, and started toward the Court. 

“ Good-by, and be sure to tell them 1 sent 
it,” answered the little girl ; “ and now to find 
my boat. I’ll ask Apple Mary. She’ll know. 
Good-by.” 

Hurrying northward along the wharves, she 
reached one that she had often visited, where 


ON THE WAY TO THE DAISIES. 37 


“Apple Mary,” once a denizen of Diggleses’, 
sat by a little stand and sold her wares to trav- 
elers. There, gently rocking at its moorings, 
glistening in white and gold, lay a big boat, 
almost as clean as the daisies farmer Eddy had 
brought. It was rapidly filling with passengers, 
and from its masthead floated a flag that seemed 
to wave an invitation to all. 

“ Hello, Apple Mary ! How d’ye do ? ” 

“ Hello, Katie. How’s all at Diggleses’ ? ” 

“ First rate — as they can be, seeing I’m go- 
ing away.” 

“ Hey ? Where to ? ” 

“ Oh ! on this boat, maybe,” answered the 
little maid, with such an airy grace that the old 
woman laughed. 

“You don’t say! Since when have you set 
out to be a ‘ globe trotter ’ ? ” 

“Well, just this morning.” 

“ Hmm I Talkin’ is cheap, but travelin’ costs 
money.” 

Katie sat down and opened her hand, display- 
ing a pile of very moist and dingy coins, while 
again her curly head tossed proudly. 

“ Well, missy, you’re a caution, so top-lofty. 
How happens it ? Been selling papers lately ? ” 

“No; a present.” 

“ So I Who from ? ” 

“Diggleses’! Guess you might stare. Listen.” 

Apple Mary paid the closest attention to 
Katie’s story. Once she had lived in the coun- 
try, and raised apples instead of selling them. 


38 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ Right you are, my girl. Go, and trust in 
the Lord. He never sent a mouth into the 
world, but He knew there was food to fill it. 
The food and the mouth don’t always get to- 
gether, but that’s not His fault. Time was, 
honey, I could lie on the daisies too. But I 
didn’t crave such a bed then. I had as good a 
feather tick as the next one, picked off my own 
geese, with one in the oven, each Christmas. 
Troubles come, my dear, troubles come. Hus- 
band went first; then the little farm, ’cause he’d 
signed some sort of paper he hadn’t ought. 
Then down to York to keep house for my son, 
and him bringin’ home a wife wasn’t our sort, 
and old mother laid on the shelf. 1 didn’t stay 
on it long, you believe. No, thank the Lord ! 
I had a stout heart to keep me up, and sense 
enough to buy and sell right. Apples, ma’am ? 
Very late in the season, but these puppy-noses 
are good keepers. Three for five cents, and 
thank you, ma’am.” 

Old Mary had paused in her long story to 
sell some of her fruit, and now turned to Katie 
with the remark : — 

“Cleared a cent and a half on that sale. 
But folks are cornin’ faster. In a few minutes 
the ‘ All-aboard ’ bell ’ll ring, and you’d best be 
going. But first, let me wrap that money in 
this rag and pin it in your frock, so you can’t 
lose it. And I do wish, child, that you’d 
washed your face.” 

“ Pshaw ! I didn’t think. But tell me about 
my ticket. Where will I get it ? ” 


ON THE WAY TO THE DAISIES. 39 


“ You go aboard, as quiet as can be, an’ right 
up some stairs inside, an’ out to that end the 
deck — see ? ” pointing her thin finger. 

“ Yes, yes, I see.” 

“ Up there you’ll find a heap of camp stools. 
You pick out one an’ go for’ard, close to the 
rail, so you can see everything. Unless it 
blows too hard, and the wind is risin’, mighty 
strong. After you’ve set a spell, a colored 
woman’ll come round and ask, mighty polite, 
‘ Have you got your tickets ? ’ And ladies that 
don’t want to go to the office ’ll give her their 
money, and she’ll fetch back their tickets and 
change all right. She’ll get yours, too, ’less 
you should see the men you know and — ” 
Mary paused at the change in Katie’s expres- 
sion. The child had recognized two figures 
among the hurrying crowd, and had started 
forward toward them. Then she remembered 
her old friend, and that she had not said 
good-by ; so called out, cheerily : — 

“ Don’t you fret, Apple Mary. I’m coming 
back. And when I get rich I’ll take you home 
to the daisy-fields, and you shall sit in a rocking- 
chair and eat your own apples all day. Good- 
by, good-by, till I come ! ” 

With a jaunty wave of her arms toward the 
feeble figure by the water-way, she was off 
once more and into the very thick of the 
crowd. 

“ Dear me ! Everybody seems to be in a 
rush, and, to me, scolding everybody else for the 


40 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


lateness. I guess my men have got on board, 
and if they have there’s plenty of time for me. 
They can’t get off again, I s’pose. Not yet. 
Dear I That fat woman stepped on my toe. 
She didn’t mean to, maybe. Never mind. I’ll 
sit on this beam close to the gang-plank, and 
when all but me have gone aboard then I will 
too. I don’t care for that best place Mary told 
about; and I don’t own the ship, I don’t,” 
she reflected, calmly, and sat herself in a dan- 
gerous place to wait. 

But wharf-reared Katie feared nothing about 
the water, and she was deeply interested in 
the scene about her. So interested, in fact, 
that she failed to hear the calls and warning 
bells. Then, suddenly, a grating sound aroused 
her, and she realized with a sinking heart that 
the plank was being drawn from the pier, and 
she — left behind ! 

With a scream of dismay she bounded for- 
ward, and her outcry was echoed by a hundred 
throats. She had been just one instant too 
late, and was now in the water, which the 
boat’s wheel was churning to foam. 


KATIE'S FIRST JOURNEY. 


41 


CHAPTER V. 

Katie’s fikst journey in the world. 

Fortunately, Katie could swim well. She 
had taken many a header from the old wharf 
where she tended her babies, pulling herself 
out of the river when she chose by means of 
an old rope attached to a spile. She now came 
to the surface just as the lower plank was 
drawn in, sprang for it, caught it, held on, and 
was swung to the deck by a pair of outstretched 
hands. 

The whole incident had occupied but a few 
seconds, so that even while the spectators 
thrilled with horror they were again thrilled by 
relief. The natural outcome of such a sudden 
change in emotion is anger ; and while she was 
spluttering for breath Katie’s rescuer, a burly 
boabhand, shook her violently, exclaiming : — 

“ Didn’t you know any better than that ? ” 

She looked around ; herself anxious but on 
one point. Yes ! The boat was moving and 
she was on board ! Satisfied of this fact, she 
laughed and gazed with merry frankness into 
the questioner’s eyes. 

“ Silly, wasn’t I ? To watch so close I quite 
forgot to watch right. Never mind. I’m here.” 


42 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


She had not been in the water long enough 
to become very wet, and she was used to dry- 
ing her clothes upon her body ; so she merely 
tossed her clinging skirt to loosen its folds, and 
felt for her precious money. It was quite safe. 

“ Isn’t that lucky ? Apple Mary said I ought 
to have washed before I came aboard, but I 
guess she didn’t expect I’d mind her quite so 
sudden. I wonder if she saw me ! ” 

Looking back toward the now rapidly reced- 
ing pier she discovered her old friend standing 
and shading her eyes, as if watching for some- 
body. Katie scanned the deck where she stood, 
but saw nothing that she could wave as a 
signal ; so she sprang to the deck-rail, and 
clinging tightly to it with her bare feet, franti- 
cally swung her arms. 

An instant later she was plucked from 
behind, again shaken vigorously, and deposited 
upon a coil of rope, with the indignant reproof : 

“Now, Sis, you quit! Are you trying to 
suicide ? or what does ail you anyhow ? What 
bad luck sent you on board ? ” 

Katie vouchsafed the angry man no reply. 
Experience had taught her that “least said is 
soonest mended.” She was contented where 
she was till the wind had dried her frock, and 
the workman become too busy to bother her. 
So she gazed out at the familiar city, which 
seemed a strange one as viewed from the river, 
and became wholly absorbed in watching the 
changing water line. She may have dozed a 


KATIE FIRST JOURNEY. 


43 


bit, too, for she seemed suddenly to be awakened 
by a dull, crashing sound that shook the pretty 
steamer from end to end. Each employee 
paused in what he was doing, to look up in 
alarm, while some uniformed officials hurriedly 
gathered, and blue-shirted workmen rushed be- 
low, by some stairway invisible to the girl. 

Yet the boat still moved, and the men re- 
turned to their task of arranging the trunks 
and boxes ; so Katie decided that the crash 
was but an ordinary sound of river travel; 
also, when she wanted to go upstairs, that she 
had never tried to walk in such a gale. The 
wind now blew through the vessel as if it 
meant to sweep it clear of all it contained, and 
a few hats went overboard. Katie saw them, 
and was grateful that she had none to lose. 
She had to cling tightly to the shining rail as 
she ascended the broad stairway, but found her- 
self at length in the upper cabin, amid the 
crowding passengers who had forsaken the 
decks for this more sheltered spot. 

“ My ! it’s warm in here I But what lots of 
babies ! and aren’t they dressed just lovely I 
I’d like to squeeze that round one yonder, that 
looks so like Miranda. I’ll have to stay here, 
it blows so outside. I’ve got to pay my ticket, 
anyway, and hunt up my two men. When I’ve 
done that, maybe I can go on the deck, as Apple 
Mary said.” 

Many a curious glance fell on the little figure 
that now coolly sauntered down the saloon. 


44 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


peering into the faces of the gentlemen, and ex- 
claiming in admiration of some infant in arms. 
How had that ragged gutter-child come there ? 

Katie soon observed these glances, and se- 
cretly resented them. Probably these rich 
folks didn’t know that she was as good as any 
of them. People should see that she was a 
regular traveler, and not a begging little tramp 
of a girl. So she sat down in a conspicuous 
place, and taking out her money, began to 
comit it from palm to palm, and with much 
ostentation. It gratified her when the scornful 
glances became simply interested ones ; for she 
had discovered a tall, dark woman, in a big 
white apron, passing from one to another with 
the friendly manner Mary had told her to 
expect. 

“ That’s the ticket-er. Course. Maybe she 
saw me come aboard — by way of the water — 
and is looking for me to pay her. Hmm ! 
Ahem! Lady, will you buy my ticket?” 

The stewardess was used to all sorts of peo- 
ple, and promptly replied, — 

“Certainly, little girl. Where to?” 

Katie caught her breath. 

“ I don’t know. Is there more than one 
place?” 

“ Yes, indeed ; I’ll name them, and when I 
say the right one you stop me. Garrison’s, 
West Point, Cornwall, Newburgh, Marl — ” 

“ Oh, dear, I don’t know. I must find my 
two men and ask.” 


KATIE '‘8 FIRST JOURNEY. 


45 


“ Ahv well ; if you’ve somebody belonging to 
you, you’ll probably find him downstairs.” 

Judging from the child’s appearance, Katie’s 
friends would scarcely be cabin passengers. 

“ But they’re not ; I’ve looked around there. 
When I find them I’ll come back.” 

At the distant end of the great room a group 
of men were earnestly talking. Among them 
was one of the blue-uniformed, brass-buttoned 
officials who seemed so grand to Diggleses’ 
Kate. Near him, listening intently, were far- 
mer Eddy and the new minister. 

Now, Katie had never been taught that it was 
rude to interrupt a conversation ; so she grasped 
the old man’s sleeve, exclaiming joyfully, — 

“ Here I am ! I’ve come to go with you ! 
Where is it we’re going ? ” 

Her question reached the ears of a stout man 
with an excited manner, who took it upon him- 
self to answer : — 

“ To the bottom of the river — in spite of 
our protests.” 

» W-h-a-t?” 

“ I say, we’re going down — drowning in this 
mill-pond of a river — right in sight of land — 
because this captain is so pig-headed.” 

“ Why, Katie ! How came you here ? ” de- 
manded the minister, as the stout man paused 
for breath. 

“ I’m going home with you, and I can’t buy 
my ticket till you tell me where it is. Please 
say, and I’ll pay her quick. Aren’t you glad ? ” 


46 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


The dismay on farmer Eddy’s face caused a 
happy diversion to the conversation of the 
group, which promptly understood the situa- 
tion, and laughed at his expense. Laying his 
hand upon her shoulder, he gently drew her a 
little aside. 

“ In a way, Katie, of course I’m glad ; but I 
don’t know what Eliza will say — and I don’t 
know as I — I greatly care. She’s one to hear 
reason — after a time; yet, my child, we may 
neither of us ever live to see Newburgh City, let 
alone that peaceful Middle Valley, miles back 
from it, where I live.” 

“Why not?” 

“ I can’t quite understand, except that some- 
thing’s wrong with the boat, and some folks 
declare she’s slowly sinking. The captain de- 
nies it, and says he’ll surely get us safe to where 
we started for. But I wish we were there 
now ! ” 

“Yes; only then we’d lose the sail; and it 
isn’t time, any way. But don’t you worry. 
This ship isn’t going down. How could it? 
Hasn’t it been going along this river forever — 
almost? Do you s’pose the captain wants to 
let it, and spoil all his nice clothes, and scare 
the babies ? Oh, say ! did you see me tumble 
in ? I tell you, I came near getting left. 
Wouldn’t that have been too bad, after the 
Diggleses gave me the ticket money. Oh, I 
forgot! You don’t know about that, do you? 
And you look dreadful tired. Let’s go sit 


KATIE'S FIRST JOURNEY. 


47 


down over yonder on that red-cushioned place. 
I’ve so much to tell; and, Ticket-er! Please, 
I’ve found ’em. Say, farmer Eddy, may I go 
right into the daisy-field the first thing? ” 

The stewardess came to them. 

“ So this is one of your ‘ men,’ is it, child ? 
I remember that his ticket was for Newburgh. 
I fancy you’re a little ‘ Fresh Air ’ girl, aren’t 
you? But whoever sent you should have fixed 
you up a bit.” 

When Mr. Eddy realized the exchange of 
funds he objected: — 

“No, Katie; you are my guest now, you 
know, and I’ll pay.” 

“ Then whatever shall I do with all this 
money ? ” 

“ I guess you’ll be able to spend it some 
way.” 

Just then the captain approached. He had 
noticed the old man’s nervousness, and wished 
to allay it. He had also seen Katie’s fall into 
the river and her want of fear, while her 
happy face attracted him. Besides, he never 
took money from such as she, and by a gesture 
reminded the stewardess of this fact. She ex- 
plained it to the girl, who caught the officer’s 
hand and kissed it gratefully. 

He smiled and addressed farmer Eddy, — 

“ Please re-assure yourself, 'sir, that you are 
in no real danger, though just after we left the 
slip we were unfortunate enough to break some 
of our machinery, and this great wind handi- 


48 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


caps US. The boat has settled in the water 
somewhat, yet is absolutely safe to make this 
run. However, for the comfort of our passen- 
gers I have signaled another steamer to keep 
alongside. If necessary she will tow us to our 
stopping places, or to the nearest point of land 
— - should worse come to worst. I hope you’ll 
help to quiet any excitement, if such arises, for 
you are safe.” 

Yet that was a stormy passage. Usually 
most swift and steady, the steamer now crawled 
and rolled along in an uncertain manner that 
tried the voyagers’ nerves, and nearly roused that 
panic which the captain had feared. Mothers 
clasped their little ones and wailed over them. 
One or two women fainted ; and the men 
began to distribute life-preservers. 

Then came Katie’s opportunity. Firm in 
faith and ignorant of danger, she broke from 
the farmer’s side to catch up first one crying 
child and then another, and fetch them back 
to the cushioned sofa they had found. The 
simple contact with such rich upholstery made 
her happy ; and she demanded of each, — 

“ There ! Did you ever feel anything so 
soft as that? Then stop fussing, and let’s 
play. Didn’t you know that if you squall 
you’ll set all the rest at it? That’s so, isn’t 
it, farmer Eddy?” 

“ Likely enough, child. You know a deal 
about nursing children. The little tackers all 
seem to like you.” 


KATIE^S FIRST JOURNEY. 


49 


“ Why not? I like them. I’m going to get 
a lot of the bigger ones and play ‘ Ring around 
a Rosy,’ then they’ll forget to cry.” 

Presently the thoughts of anxious passengers 
were divert^ by the sight of these happy little 
ones who followed their leader with gleeful 
confidence ; and the captain, repassing with a 
brother officer, remarked, — 

“ I’m thankful that little girl came on board. 
Her behavior does more to quiet fear than any 
amount of talk would. And we’re getting on, 
if slowly.” 

They were getting on, indeed ; and to Katie 
it seemed that she had hardly come any distance 
before the first landing was reached and a num- 
ber of people left the steamer. Other stops fol- 
lowed in quick succession ; and at last the sound 
of the gong once more, and the loud cry, — 
“All ashore for New-burgh ! Aft gangway 
for New-burgh ! All ashore that’s going ! ” 

The minister helped farmer Eddy into his 
top-coat, picked up their belongings, nodded to 
Katie to follow, and promptly led the way from 
the boat to the city dock. 

“ Here, at last, thank the Lord ! ” said the 
farmer devoutly. 

Then they climbed into a waiting railway train, 
which went whizzing away through a beautiful 
country, “like a Central Park Avithout end,” as 
the child exclaimed. The twilight fell, the 
moonlight came out, and Katie was asleep. 
She was still sleeping when their own station 


50 


DAISIES AND DIGGLE8ES\ 


of Middle Valley was reached; so the minister 
lifted her gently, and with her in his arms 
clambered after the farmer into the wagon, 
which Reuben had brought to meet them. 
Nor, lest they should wake her, would they 
explain to the boy’s questioning gaze who this 
stranger might be ; but when he stepped down 
at his own threshold the old man extended his 
sound arm, and directed, — 

“ Give her to me.” 

“ With your lameness ? Better let me,” pro- 
tested the clergyman. 

“ Thank you ; but, no. If she’s to be a 
blessing to this house, as I hope, it is I who 
wish to bestow it.” 

Eliza nodded in her sewing-chair beside the 
table, from which a lamp, under a crimson 
shade, shed a pleasant light about. Reuben 
was so much later than she had expected that 
his brothers had all gone to bed ; and the 
silence had made her so drowsy that she knew 
nothing of the travelers’ arrival till a weight 
upon her breast aroused her, and her arms 
unconsciously closed about that which had 
been placed within them. Then her eyes 
opened upon the faces of farmer Eddy, the new 
minister, and the red-frocked little maid within 
her own embrace. Then she looked into her 
father’s eyes, demanding, — 

“ What is this ? ” 

“ A little present I have brought you from 
New York, my daughter.” 


THE WRIP-POOB-WILUS CALL. 


51 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE whip-poor-will’s CALL. 

“ Father Eddy ! Of all things ! ” 

Eliza sprang up and placed Katie on the floor, 
where, thus suddenly roused, she rubbed her 
eyes and stared confusedly about her. Then 
the old man’s hand was on her head, and she 
heard him saying : 

“ Poor little creature ! You’re completely 
tuckered out. I don’t wonder, either, for I’m 
tired myself. But it’s all right, child. You’ve 
got to the house where ‘General Washington’ 
belongs, and this is Eliza. She’ll be glad to see 
you — in a minute.” 

As yet Mrs. Eddy showed none of this glad- 
ness. She exclaimed with sharpness : 

“ Well, father, I think you might at least 
have told me what you meant to do ! ” 

“ So I would, daughter, if I’d so meant. 
This has happened without any planning of 
mine, and we’ll talk it over by and by. That’s 
a nice supper I see on the side table, and here 
comes Reuben in from the barn ; so let’s all 
enjoy it.” 

Eliza remembered that she had not as yet 
extended any greeting to the minister, and has- 


52 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


tened to do so; ignoring Katie, who watched 
her silently and intently, and who was suffer- 
ing a sudden, terrible homesickness. The child 
gazed around wistfully. If there had only been 
one baby in sight ! If only anything familiar. 
But that rag-carpeted floor, the mirror reflecting 
the staring red lamp, that stiff row of chairs — 
all these seemed to reach out toward her and 
choke her. She closed her eyes to escape them ; 
and when she again raised her lids, she was out 
on the vine-covered porch, where the minister 
was holding her on his knee, and a spoonful of 
milk to her lips. 

“ There, Katie, drink that. Tastes nice, 
doesn’t it? Another? Good. You’re coming 
round all right. She’s come to, Mrs. Eddy, he 
called to somebody within. 

Then another face bent above her, — a woman’s 
face, no longer angry and forbidding, but full of 
motherly compassion. 

“ Poor child ! To think that anybody who 
was starving should ever come to my door I 
Drink it slowly, little one, and you shall have 
all you want.” 

Kate lifted her head from the clergyman’s 
shoulder, and asked : 

“ Where?” 

“ Where what, dear ? ” 

“ The little one.” 

“ Why, you, yourself, Katie.” 

The small maid swallowed the cup of milk 
now offered her, then laughed aloud. She had 


THE WHIP-POOB-WILVS CALL. 


53 


fainted from hunger, as Eliza had guessed, hav- 
ing that day eaten no food save ice-cream — 
John’s gift; but she was rapidly regaining her 
strength, and soon slipped from the minister’s 
lap to her own feet. 

It had needed nothing but this fainting fit to 
rouse all Eliza’s kindness of heart ; and she now 
led the stranger back into the supper-room, and 
placed her before a plate which farmer Eddy had 
heaped with good things. 

“ My ! Is all that for me ? ” 

“ All for you, my child, after grace.” 

The word “ grace ” was meaningless to Katie ; 
but she watched while the others bowed their 
heads, and the minister gave thanks for the 
food set before them, and for all the mercies of 
the day. Then the meal began, and all ate 
heartily, except Katie, who soon finished, though 
the host urged her to take more. 

“ I’d like to, but I can’t. I’m all filled up 
already ; yet it was so nice. How I wish Apple 
Mary had what I have left ! ” 

Having served the others, Mrs. Eddy now 
rose from behind her tea-urn, and said : 

“ Come, child. I’ll carry you to a place 
where you can sleep. A night’s rest will make 
another girl of you ; ” and she stooped to lift 
the slender body in her own strong arms. 

“ Carry me ! Anybody carry me ! W ouldn’t 
Mis’ Jones laugh if she heard that? But I’d 
rather walk.” 

The independence pleased the farm-wife. 


54 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


“ Come on, then. I see you’re not one to 
make much trouble.” 

“ I wouldn’t want to do that. Is this the way 
to the daisies ? ” 

“ I don’t know what you mean, child. They 
are all about us — the pests ! This is the way 
to the sitting-room chamber where I sleep. But 
there’s a tub of fresh rain-water in the lean-to, 
and you must take a bath before you get into 
bed.” 

“ I’ll like the water, though I’ve been in the 
river once to-day. I want the daisies more. 
Oh! if you knew how I have thought about 
them I I must find ’em, if they are near, and 
lie right down among them. I must ■ — I must ! ” 

Eliza paid no attention to this curious desire, 
but gave the girl no time to change her mind 
about the bath, and led her at once into the 
moonlighted lean-to, where stood a tub of water. 
Without waiting further directions, Katie tossed 
aside her rags and leaped in. 

“ Why, child I You’re very sudden in your 
movements. I’ll get a towel for you.” 

This was an unknown luxury to the bather, 
who felt as if she must obey all the rules Mrs. 
Eddy laid down, so meekly accepted it. With 
the towel was also brought a nightgown of little 
Dan’s, who was as large as Katie, if not so old ; 
and already the farm-wife was pondering how 
best to provide some decent clothing for this 
stranger, so unexpectedly thrust upon her care, 
and who received the gown with delight. 


THE WHIP-POOE-WILVS CALL. 55 


“ Oh ! this is beautiful I Some of the chil- 
dren have nightclothes and put them on every 
evening. I never had. Oh ! how sweet ! ” and 
she caught up the folds of snowy muslin and 
pressed them to her nostrils. 

“ That’s the smell of the grass, child. I 
always put my washing on the grass from the 
first blade comes to the last that stays.” 

“It must be splendid to have it all around so.” 

“ Well, it is nice, that’s true. But come 
now, for bed.” 

Clad in her fresh attire, and dewy from her 
bath, it was a very dainty Katie who followed 
into the grfeat room, where a whit^counterpaned 
bed stood between wide open windows. The 
bed could easily have accommodated a dozen of 
the Court babies, and she gaped in amazement 
when her hostess remarked : 

“ This is where I sleep. Little Dan is in the 
crib, yonder ; and I’m going to fix you a shake- 
down on this lounge. It’s soft, and to-morrow 
I’ll see about something fitter.” 

“ Alone ? You sleep alone here, with only 
that one boy there ? Why, you could rent out 
half and never know it.” 

“Well — of all things! Rent it? I rather 
guess I should know it if I did, though I 
shouldn’t know myself. Yes ; that’s Danny, 
my baby. You may go look at him if you won’t 
wake him.” 

Katie ran to the crib and peeped in, then drew 
back in disappointment. 


56 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


“ That a baby ? Why, he ought to be selling 
papers and earning his keep. He’s a great, big 
boy ! ” 

The mother made no comment, but she was 
not pleased. She went on spreading sheets on 
the lounge, and unfolding a warm blanket. 
Then she took a great pillow from her own bed, 
regarded it rather regretfully, yet finally placed 
it at the head of the lounge. 

“ There ! Say your prayers and hop in. Then 
I must go back to the folks.” 

“ I don’t know any prayers ; and I don’t 
want to sleep on that soft thing. I couldn’t 
breathe. I wmnt to go to the daisies, if you’ll 
only show me where.” 

Eliza’s ready temper flamed. She was used 
to having people obey her without question. 
She was taking much trouble for this unwel- 
come guest, and the pity she had begun to feel 
now gave way to vexation. 

“ Tut, tut! Morning’s time enough for dai- 
sies. Even then you mustn’t trample the hay 
to get them. To-morrow, too. I’ll teach you 
your prayers. I haven’t time to-night, with 
that late supper, and dishes to wash, and every- 
thing to do single-handed. Get into bed now, 
and don’t hinder any more.” 

Katie had led almost a charmed life in the 
dark haunts of Diggleses’, where she had been 
so useful, and had never before been spoken to 
in such a tone. It frightened her, and she crept 
between the sheets, while, meaning to be kind. 


THE WRIP-POOR-WILVS CALL. 57 


Eliza tucked the heavy blanket over these, and 
left the room. 

Then said the child to herself : 

“ I’ll get up and find my own clothes and my 
fifty cents, and go away. I’ll walk to the river, 
and find a boat and go home. I hadn’t ought 
to have left the babies, after all ; and I do hope 
Miranda won’t be let roll off the dock before I 
get there. In a minute — ” 

But in a minute Nature had taken matters 
into her own wise hand, and Katie was asleep. 

Some time during the night she awoke. The 
wind was blowing the sweet odors of grape- 
blooms through the windows, and coaxing her 
to throw off that burdening blanket and come 
out into the open. She sat up and listened. 
Accustomed to the roar of city streets, the 
silence terrified her. There was absolutely no 
sound to reassure her, till from far away came 
the cry of a whip-poor-will. 

After all, then, there was something alive, 
somewhere. She would up and answer it. She 
would have the rest of this one night in the 
cool grass among the daisies. She would find 
“ General Washington,” and pick some cherries 
from a tree, if there was one away off that no- 
body — meaning Eliza — owned. Then for 
Diggleses’ and freedom. 

In that quiet place doors might be sometimes 
closed, but were rarely locked. In a few sec- 
onds the child had passed beyond the threshold, 
and stumbled against something soft, which 


58 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESEE\ 


the housemistress had tossed there in haste 
and some disgust, till it could be safely dis- 
posed of. 

“ My frock ! my frock, and the money’s in it 
still!” 

Then off came Danny’s borrowed gown, to be 
folded upon the door-step, while the familiar 
garments readjusted themselves to their owner’s 
shoulders. As she shook them into place and 
fastened what buttons there were, the little 
maid gayly tossed her head and bounded forth 
into an unknown land. 


ANIMALS ON A FROLIC. 


59 


CHAPTER VIL 

ANIMALS ON A FROLIC. 

In the morning, Mrs. Eddy’s first glance 
showed her the empty lounge ; and when she 
had dressed and crossed the lean-to, she was 
somewhat startled to see the neatly folded night- 
gown lying on the doorstep. 

“ Katie ! Little Katie, where are yon ? ” 

Nobody answered, and Eliza was too busy a 
woman to waste time in searching for the miss- 
ing guest. She started her kitchen fire, and 
hurried to the well to fill the teakettle ; and the 
sound of its sweep roused farmer Eddy, though 
the lads needed their mother’s peremptory call : 

“ Come, boys, come ! Everybody’s behind 
time this morning ! ” 

There followed the patter of bare feet on the 
floor above, and one after another three drowsy 
urchins descended to the kitchen. Reuben only 
had known of Katie’s arrival, and was eagerly 
telling the story to his brothers, when Eliza cut 
him short. 

“ Mustn’t stop to talk now. Eli, don’t stand 
staring in that witless way. Come — come on ! ” 

She put on her sun-bonnet, and with her milk 


60 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


pails jingling on her arms, led the way to the 
night pasture, where the cows were usually 
milked. 

Under Mrs. Eddy’s firm rule the work ran 
very smoothly at Uplands. Each one of the 
family had his own duties, and she saw to it that 
he performed them. Then there were the 
“ hired folks,” Samuel and Seraphine Black, who 
lived in a cottage at the foot of the lane. Sam- 
uel was slow and indolent, and inclined to put 
his own tasks upon the boys ; he was also silent 
and morose, and disliked his mistress as heartily 
as she disliked him. The original arrangement 
between them, made years before, called for 
Seraphine’s regular assistance at the “big 
house;” but she liked to consider herself an 
invalid, and was apt to be seized by a “spell” 
whenever her services were most needed ; and 
though many efforts had been made by the 
Eddys to alter the state of things, no reform 
was ever permanent, and they had now given 
up the effort. 

Soon father Eddy’s face appeared above the 
pasture bars, and he bade everybody in sight 
a genial good -morning, adding the question : 

“ Where’s the little girl ? ” 

“ She’s found her old dress and gone off — 
seeking for daisies, I presume. I wish you’d 
see where. She may be in the best meadows, 
tramping down the grass. Besides, she ought 
to come and wash up for breakfast ; I’m ’most 
through milking.” 


ANIMALS ON A FROLIC. 


01 


“ I’ll go ; and when I fetch her I wish you’d 
give her as much of that warm milk as she can 
drink. Best stuff in the world for children, 
and she needs good food.” Then he climbed 
a ladder that rested against the near-by corn- 
crib, though his daughter called warningly : 

“ Take care, father ! Don’t want any more 
tumble, do you ? ” 

“ No, indeed. Only from here I can see all 
over the farm. Soon’s I catch a glimpse of 
that little red frock. I’ll after it.” 

But there was no sign of Katie in any of the 
wide meadows surrounding the home-place; and 
as the farmer stepped again to the ground, he 
advised : 

“ Don’t wait for me, Eliza, if you’re late al- 
ready. Give the boys their breakfasts, and 
we’ll take ours when we can.” 

Then he disappeared through a wicket gate 
leading into the garden, which, on that northern 
side, was protected by a tall privet hedge that, 
also, hid the interior from view. A single 
pace beyond the wicket, he stopped short with 
an exclamation of dismay. 

“ My garden — my garden ! What has 
happened ! ” 

This was the one spot at Uplands which the 
old farmer best loved and tended, and it was 
his especial pride to have it far excel that of 
any neighbor. It had received his prompt 
visit, upon his return on the night before, and 
he had found it in perfect order, with some pet 


62 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


vegetables well advanced. The moonlight had 
shown him that very clearly. 

Now it was ruined. Pea- vines were torn 
down and trampled, cabbages gnawed, corn 
broken as if a roller had passed over it; and 
seeing the rear gate opened, he rushed toward 
it. 

“ That explains I Somebody has passed 
through here, and forgot to shut it. Little 
Dan, or Simeon in one of his absent-minded 
moods. But — this makes me about sick.” 

Then be looked over the young orchard, 
upon which the inner gate opened, and where 
had been kept a number of sheep and calves. 
The orchard was empty, and a gate on the 
further side of it was also open. This gave 
upon a green lane, down which farmer Eddy 
hastened, till he reached an open space before 
the Blacks’ cottage, which Samuel was just 
leaving. 

“ Thought I wasn’t coming, didn’t you ? 
Well, I was nigh not.” 

“Do you know who let the sheep out? ” 

“No, I don’t. I wish I did.” 

“ Why ? Have they done harm here, too ? ” 

“ ’Twasn’t their fault they didn’t. If Sera- 
phine hadn’t been in a ‘ spell,’ I might have 
had my garden spoiled.” Samuel was the 
rival of his employer in the gardening line, and 
Eliza declared that he spent more time and 
strength over his “ patch ” than on the whole 
farm which he was engaged to till. 


ANIMALS ON A FROLIC. 


63 


Despite his anxiety, farmer Eddy smiled. 
It was the first time he had ever known one of 
Mrs. Black’s “ spells ” to be useful to anybody. 

“Were the calves with the sheep?” 

“ Course. Acted like possessed. Careerin’ 
an’ cavortin’ round, crazy as loons, and scarin’ 
poor Phiney nigh into fits. Till she thought 
about the garden an’ waked me up. Just in 
time, too, for I haven’t no nice fence ’round 
mine, to keep other folkses’ stray critters shut 
of it,” concluded Samuel, with a characteristic 
whine. • 

“ Well, I fared worse with my fence than 
you with none. Where are they now ? ” 

“ How can I tell? Down the road to 
‘ Ballyhack,’ for aught I know.” 

“ Why didn’t you stop them ? you must have 
known they were ours.” 

“ Couldn’t. The calves drove the sheep, 
and ’twould have been right over my body if 
I’d give ’em a chance. I didn’t. I’ve no legs 
or arms to spare, to get broke. I’ll go and 
seek them now, soon’s I’ve had a bite of break- 
fast. Had yours, boss ? ” 

“ Not yet.” 

“My rye coffee is ready, if you’ll stoop to 
taste it.” 

“Come, Samuel, don’t whine. You earn 
enough to provide real coffee, if you wish it, 
and Seraphine should be willing to prepare it 
for you.” With intention, the master spoke 
loud enough for the woman within the cottage 


64 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


to hear; and that she did so, was evinced by 
a loud groan. 

“ I’ll go ahead, and track the creatures. 
You hurry to the house and tell Eliza. You 
get the mowing-machine out and send Simeon 
to help me. We’ll cut the six-acre meadow 
this morning. No, thank you. No coffee yet. 
The stock may be doing somebody else a 
damage.” 

Samuel looked admiringly after the old 
gentleman as he strode away. “ Smartest old 
fellow in the country, for eighty year. I’m 
twenty younger, an’ feel like Methuselah. 
Yes, Seraphine. What is it now? Ain’t you 
comfortable ? ” 

“ Am I ever comfortable, Samuel Black ? ” 

“ No, deary. I s’pose not. What can I get 
you?” 

“ I wish you wouldn’t go to work to-day. I 
don’t feel a mite like bein’ left.” 

“I’ll have to, Phiney. With his lame arm 
boss ain’t able to drive the machine, an’ hay’s fit 
to cut. I might get one of the neighbors to 
stay with you.” 

“ Samuel Black, is there a neighbor in all 
Middle Valley believes there’s a thing the 
matter with me, only ’t I’m spleeny ? ” 

“ No, Seraphine, I guess not. But — they 
don’t know you as I do.” 

Mrs. Black made no further remark, but 
watched her husband eat and depart ; then she 
leaned back among the cushions of her rocker 


ANIMALS ON A FROLIC. 


65 


and prepared herself for a doze ; which, how- 
ever, she was not destined to secure. 

She was suddenly roused by a succession of 
shrill cries from some child in terror. Now in 
Seraphine’s foolish nature there was one re- 
deeming quality, a passionate love for children. 
Since there were none in her own house she 
made much of her neighbors’ little ones, and 
to make them happy would rouse herself at any 
time from her habitual indolence. They loved 
her in return and delighted to visit her; and 
she now thought it must be one of these favor- 
ites who was screaming so frantically. 

“ My heart ! Whatever little tacker that is, 
it’s frightened nigh to death ! ” 

She hurried to the doorway and saw, almost 
flying up the road, a small, red-clad figure, and 
following it with lowered head and vicious 
bellow was farmer Watkins’ Holstein-Friesian 
bull, “ Captain Grand,” the most dangerous as 
well as valuable animal in all that country- 
side, and who was commonly kept under closest 
guard. 

Seraphine forgot her imaginary woes and 
ran to the rescue ; also forgetting her own red 
print wrapper which seemed a fresh insult to 
the enraged beast. He roared again ; and the 
woman fancied she could almost feel his horns 
upon her body, as she reached the cottage, with 
“ Captain Grand ” close at her heels. Then 
Seraphine made the leap of her life ; landing 
safely in her kitchen beyond the porch, and 


66 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


flinging its door shut behind her, while she 
deposited the rescued child upon the floor. 
Then across to the inner, woodshed door, to 
close that and feel at last secure. 

Panting and flushed, she asked : — 

“ Sissy, who in the world are you ? and how 
came you with that creature ? Don’t you know 
he might have killed us both ? ” Then watch- 
ing through the open window the excited 
movements of the “ Captain,” she added : “ He 
may yet — if he takes a notion to butt that 
door down. We’d better go up-stairs, quick! ” 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


67 


CHAPTER VIIL 

A CHOICE OF MOTHEKS. 

Katie followed into a cool and shadowy 
upper room, where Seraphine knelt before the 
green blinds, groaning each time she saw the 
bull move toward the garden, and sighing with 
relief when he finally started up the lane toward 
the big barns. She was just rising to go back 
down-stairs when she discovered some men 
hurrying along the road, but paused to throw 
open the shutters and speak to them. 

“ Oh ! Miss Black. Seen anything of our 
‘ Captain ’ ? ” 

“ Should think I had ! He near scared me 
to death. How came he loose ? He’s gone on 
up the lane.” 

“ 1 was changing the Captain’s pasture just 
as Eddy’s young stock came tearing by, and 
that set the mischief into him. There was a 
little girl in the road, had on a red dress, and 
that made him madder. I’m afraid she’s been 
hurt. Seen her ? ” 

Katie joined Mrs. Black at the window and 
answered for herself : 

“Here am I, all safe. He didn’t hurt me. 


68 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


What made him act so? I was just running 
after the cute little calves, that kicked up their 
heels like anything. We’d all slept in the 

parky-place together. Then the big one ran 

toward me and roared, and 1 ran too. My ! I 

never was so scared and had so much fun at 

the same time in my life.” 

The men now turned into the lane ; and 
eager to see if they captured their animal, 
Seraphine hurried to the lower doorway. But 
they were soon out of sight, and she had time 
to question the stranger. 

“ Who are you, child ? ” 

“ Katie.” 

“ Katie who ? ” 

“ Why, just Katie. Diggleses’ Katie.” 

“ Hmn. Kate Diggles. 1 don’t know of any 
Diggleses around here. Are your folks new- 
comers ? ” 

“ Oh ! they haven’t come yet.” 

“ How did you, then ? ” 

“ On a boat and the cars. With farmer Eddy 
and the minister man.” 

“ You don’t say ! Of all things ! Farmer 
Eddy fetched you ? Are you one of the fresh- 
airers the parson talks about continual, and 
thinks everybody ought to take in and do for? 
Even me that can’t lift my hand to my head 
half the time.” 

“ Can’t you ? Why, what a pity ! Is it the 
rheumatism ? ” 

“No, ’tisn’t. It’s just a general disability,” 
with a sigh. 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


69 


“ You ought to go to the Infirmary and get 
some medicine.” 

Mrs. Black turned from the honest, sympa- 
thetic little face toward the window, and 
remarked : — 

“ By the dust risin’ I should say that was the 
boss now, drivin’ home his stock. I hope to 
goodness they won’t get into my garden too. 
Say, you’re young an’ spry ; you just stand out 
that edge the ‘patch,’ won’t you? Turn ’em 
off if they try it. Hurry up an’ get there, 
before they spy the young cabbages.” 

Katie ran to the spot indicated, and had 
hardly reached it when, with wild gambols that 
set her into peals of laughter, the calves rushed 
over the whole clearing, sparing neither the 
cabbages nor the row of double hollyhocks that 
were Seraphine’s especial pride. The child did 
her best. But her shouts rather increased than 
calmed the antics of the animals, though the 
sheep huddled in a group at one side and re- 
fused to move from thence. 

“ Katie I Katie ! Be quiet. Here, Seraphine, 
you’ll have to help. Once we can get them 
headed for home they’ll go right enough. I 
wonder who was at the bottom of this busi- 
ness,” said farmer Eddy. Then he looked 
again at the little girl and suspected her of 
the mischief. 

“ Child, did you open the gate for them ? ” 

“ Yes. In the morning when I waked up. 
They wanted me to.” 


70 


BAISIES AND BIGGLESES'. 


“ Oh, oh, oh ! But little you dream, I sup- 
pose, the trouble you’ve made.” 

Katie’s heart sank. The handsome old face 
that had seemed so kind now looked hard and 
stern, and with its change of expression the 
landscape, also, seemed changed and grown 
dismal. She thought of the old wharf and her 
babies, and wished she had never heard of 
farmer Eddy or his daisies. She longed for the 
crowded Court, where there had always been 
room for her ; though up here, where there was 
a whole world full of empty fields, she was all 
the time in somebody’s way. Her breast heaved, 
and her lips quivered, but she kept the tears 
back. Then said Seraphine, — 

“ There, sissy, never mind. Come in, and 
I’ll fix you some breakfast.” 

The farmer also held out his hand, — 

“ As Seraphine says, don’t grieve. What’s 
done can’t be helped, and you were ignorant of 
harm. Cheer up.” 

His returning gentleness touched the girl 
to deeper distress. She caught up his hand 
and kissed it. 

“No, no! I didn’t mean to do wrong. I 
love you ; but I hated the house, and the Eliza- 
woman was sorry I’d come. I wanted the 
daisies I’d come after. I went through some 
gates and doors, and the calves played with me. 
Then when I started to find the river they mooed 
and followed. That was all the way of it. 
I’m sorry ; and as soon as she gives me a crust 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


71 


I’ll go straight away. ^ Would my fifty cents 
pay for the garden? ” 

The farmer drew the ragged little person to 
his side. 

“ There’s something much nicer than crusts 
waiting for us at home, Katie. Think no more 
of the matter, except to remember that a closed 
gate is always to be left as you find it. The 
calves have sobered down now, and there comes 
Eli. You can help me drive them back again.” 

“ I’ll help you, hut I’m afraid of Eliza. I 
guess she’s like the mothers that beat their 
children. And I don’t care to stay. It isn’t 
as nice as I thought it was.” 

Farmer Eddy clasped the child’s hand even 
more firmly, and led her along the lane, though 
he said nothing further. Sending her in to the 
now empty kitchen, he sought Eliza in the 
dairy, and what passed there was never known. 
But he came out alone, and with a rather 
troubled manner dished up the belated break- 
fast, and set a chair for Katie beside his own. 

“ Oh ! how nice it is ! I can eat a lot this 
morning if — if the lady will not care.” 

“ No, my child. She feels badly over the 
ruined garden, because we are not like city 
people with a market convenient to hand. 
Have some of this stewed potato? What do 
you say to that for a boy’s cooking ? ” 

“ Prime ! ” answered she, her spirits rising 
rapidly, and her feet beginning to swing back 
and forth in a childishly natural action. 


72 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


Then Eliza came in, heard the scuff-scuff of 
the small, calloused soles against the chair- 
round, and reproved, — 

“ Oh, child ! Don’t do that ! Your feet are 
dirty, and you’ll scratch the paint.” 

“ Shall I help clear away, daughter ? ” 

“No, thank you. You should be out doors, 
seeing to things. The men have caught ‘ Cap- 
tain Grand ’ and led him past. Samuel and 
Reuben have shut the calves in the south 
pasture, and got the sheep back into the orchard. 
He ought to be mowing if he means to get that 
grass cut this morning. I wish you’d hurry 
him a bit — if he can be hurried.” 

“ He’s always slow, daughter ; but I’m leav- 
ing you with a little helper who’s quick as 
lightning, or was so yesterday. Good-by, Katie. 
Try to learn how country folks live, and mind 
all Eliza tells you. I sha’n’t be far away ; and 
after you’ve done what you can here, maybe you 
can come out to' the hay-field.” 

Katie was tempted to follow him then, but 
Mrs. Eddy gave her no chance. She was 
greatly angered by the ruin of her garden, and 
her tone was severe as she asked, - — 

“ Child, have you washed your face this 
morning ? ” 

“ Oh, no ! ” 

“Aren’t you in the habit of washing your 
face ? ” 

“ I do it sometimes, if there aren’t too many 
others at the spigot. Mostly I go in the river 
for a ducking.” 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


73 


“ Humph I Can you sew ? ” 

“No, indeed.” 

“ It’s time you learned.” 

“ I never had anything to sew. The mothers 
do that to our Court.” 

“ Your Court. From all I hear about it, it’s 
the worst spot in the world. You must forget 
it as soon as possible. You may have lived 
like a little heathen heretofore, but I intend 
you shall now be brought up like a Christian.” 

“ Are you a Christian ? ” 

The innocent question brought a flush to 
Mrs. Eddy’s cheek; but her tone was much 
gentler as she answered, — 

“ I hope I am, though a very imperfect one. 
If mother were here you’d have an example, 
indeed. But, there. Go wash your face in 
the tin basin that hangs outside the lean-to 
door. There’s a pail of water on the bench, 
and a dipper hangs over it. Then come back 
and help me. I’ve much to do, and not least 
of all — ’ to get you something decent to wear. 
I must go to the village myself, for 1 can’t trust 
anybody else.” 

Katie’s heart was lightened by the change in 
her hostess’ manner, and she answered gayly: — 
“ Oh ! I don’t need anything. This frock will 
last till cold weather, and then I guess ‘ Opium 
Molly ’ will find me another somewhere. She’s 
real good sometimes, even when she’s ‘ out from 
under.’ ” 

A moment later Mrs. Eddy heard a merry 


74 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


voice singing a bit of a popular melody outside 
the lean-to door; then a splash, splash ; laugh- 
ter ; and a sudden call : — 

“ Hello, boy I Who are you ? Aren’t you 
funny ! Are you a waiter ? ” 

“No; I’m nobody’s waiter. I’m Simeon 
Claude Eddy. I’m the smartest one of the 
family. I can figure like a streak.” 

“ Can you ? You don’t look it. I’ve seen a 
lightning calculator. He was in a procession. 
He wasn’t fat like you. He had nothing on 
but his skin and some clothes. Why do you 
have so many names? What made you act so 
queer when you saw me — bobbing and grin- 
ning that silly way ? ” 

“ I didn’t ; 1 don’t like girls nohow — ragged 
nor whole. And I have the names ’cause they 
was give to me. I think Claude’s pretty, don’t 
you? Ma read it in a book. I wish they’d 
call me Claude all the time ; but grandpa says 
it’s too fine for a farmer. I sha’n’t be a farmer, 
though, always.” 

“ What will you be ? ” 

“ Oh, maybe President or something.” 

“But why do you wear a big white apron if 
you’re not a waiter ? ” 

“ Pshaw ! you’re a regular stick-to-it-er ; 
well, then, ’cause I have to. It saves my 
overalls when I wash dishes. I hate it ! ” 

“ Should think you would.” 

“ It ain’t a man’s work, anyway. I won’t do 
it any more, now you’ve come.” 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


75 


“ But I’m not going to stay, you know.” 

“ Why not?” 

“ I didn’t come to do that ; only just to see 
if there was room. But there isn’t. I was 
going to-day; hut now, perhaps. I’ll wait till 
to-morrow.” 

“ Why ain’t there room ? There’s over two 
hundred acres in our farm of Uplands. Can 
you beat that?” 

“ I don’t know what an acre is. Hark I 
Eliza is calling you.” 

“ You mustn’t say that ; you must say ‘ Mis’ 
Eddy.’ ” 

“ All right. Shall I come too ? ” 

“ I s’pose so ; I heard her say she was going 
to take you in hand. I guess you’ll know what 
dish-washing is yourself before you get done.” 

Yet there was nothing unpleasant in store 
for the little girl that morning. Eliza did, in- 
deed, set her to peeling potatoes for dinner, and 
found her pupil so quick and obedient that her 
interest in her “ present ” continually increased. 
To the “ present ” herself that first half-day in 
a well-appointed kitchen was a revelation ; and 
she watched the making and baking of some 
sweet, heart-shaped cookies with a yearning 
thought of the hungry folks at Diggleses. 
When a panful had been taken from the oven 
and she was given one to eat, she regarded it 
wistfully, but laid it carefully aside. 

“ Don’t you like cookies, Katie ? ” 

“ Oh, don’t I ! But I want to take this to a 


76 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


man I know. Farmer Eddy gave him one, 
same kind, it looks.” 

“ Tell me about him, child,” said the house- 
mistress, well pleased that her work should 
have given somebody comfort. 

So Katie told the story of “ Smarty,” finish- 
ing with a sigh for his familiar presence. 

Eliza also sighed : — 

“ Poor fellow ! I’d be glad to give this 
whole batch of cakes to anybody who’s been 
a sailor.” 

“You would? Then will you give them to 
me to take to him ? I was going to wait till 
to-morrow ; but if I can have these for him and 
the babies, I’ll start right now.” 

Mrs. Eddy felt suddenly surprisingly disap- 
pointed. With real anxiety she exclaimed : — 

“ Why, I thought you had come to stay — to 
be my little girl. I never had one.” 

Katie was sorely troubled by this, but was 
saved the pain of answering ; for there was now 
a woman looking in at the window, who spoke 
in her stead. 

“Nor II Neither chick nor child in my 
poor cottage, Eliza Eddy ; while you have sons 
to spare. So I’ve come to ask her to be 
girl; and I’ve been all morning running- this 
little frock together on my machine, so she can 
surprise her father Samuel when he comes home 
at nooning. Now say, Katie ; will you come? ” 

Mrs. Eddy was shocked by the audacity of 
this demand ; and with a fierceness of manner 


A CHOICE OF MOTHERS. 


77 


that really expressed her anger against Sera- 
phine only, she turned upon Katie, — 

“ Well, child, which is it — she or me ? ” 
Poor Katie saw but the anger, not divining 
its cause, and her first fear of the richer woman 
returned. She forgot that she would be with 
neither of them for long, as she quietly an- 
swered : — 

“ I’ll go with her, because, I guess, she likes 
me.” 


78 


DAISIES AND D1GGLESES\ 


CHAPTER IX. 

A YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST. 

“ Humph ! 1 hope she’ll prove it. But, poor 
child, you are making the mistake of your life.” 

“ Maybe not, maybe not,” answered Seraphine, 
temptingly holding up the pink calico frock. 
“ Come, sissy, let’s go try it on. I made some 
for Mis’ Watkins’ Lucy, and had her pattern. 
Indeed, if it wasn’t that I got a job of sewing 
for the neighbors now and then, I’d be pretty 
short of cash.” 

Mrs. Eddy dared not answer, lest she should 
say too much ; nor did she even look up as 
Katie left the kitchen, and joined the woman 
outside the window. Plalf-way down the lane, 
‘however, the child paused. She was greatly 
troubled, though puzzled to understand her own 
offense. With a sudden — “ Wait a minute ! ” 
she ran back to the big house. Eliza had just 
removed her last pan of cakes from the oven. 
The kitchen was redolent of spices and sweet- 
ness, and remorseful thoughts of “ Smarty ” 
added to Katie’s distress. Catching Mrs. Eddy’s 
crisp skirts in her hands, she implored : 

“ Please forgive me if I oughtn’t to go. I 


A YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST. 


79 


thought you didn’t really want me and she did, 
though it’s only for to-day, you know. I won’t 
put on the pink frock if you don’t like me to. 
I’m sorry about the cakes. If I could do some- 
thing to buy them — my fifty cents might help. 
If there was a baby to tend — ” 

“Ma! Ma-a! M— a— a!” 

Both ran to answer this howl of distress, 
which came from small Dan, perched on the 
lean-to roof. 

“ Why, mother’s baby ! What is the matter?” 
demanded Eliza, stretching her arms upward to 
lift him down. 

“ Eli — he — he — sent — Ow, wow ! ” 

“ There, sweet ! What did Eli do ? ” 

“ He — huh — he said I — I — let his squir- 
rel trap loose. An’ — an’ — jabbed his fish- 
hooks crooked ; an’ I only — I only — I — ” 

“ Yes. What else about Eli? ” 

“ He sent me up here to look for a new hen’s 
nest ; an’ then he — he pushed the ladder down 
an’ run. I can’t get off, I can’t — Ow, wow ! 
Say, what’s that girl laughin’ at ? ” 

Everybody in the neighborhood knew that 
Mrs. Eddy was “ spoiling ” her youngest child, 
the namesake and image of his lost father, and 
everybody had excused her for it ; but now 
came sturdy Katie, and her severer judgment. 

“ Why, i’m laughing at you, you great boy ! 
As big as I am, yet yelling like that. If you 
lived at Diggleses’ you’d get ducked in the 
river for it. Why didn’t you jump off the 


80 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


roof if you wanted to get down ? See — this 
way.” 

With wonderful agility the girl climbed to 
the peak of the roof, and leaped from it, evoking 
an admiring exclamation from Seraphine, who 
had returned and joined the group : 

“Land, sissy! You’re as supple as a lizard 
on a fence. But don’t cry any more, Danny. 
Me and this little girl are going to pick wild 
strawberries for a shortcake. Want to come 
along an’ have some ? ” 

Eliza had not forgiven Seraphine, but she 
could not resist the delight which now replaced 
the gloom of her son’s countenance. 

“Well — I suppose you may. But mind 
that you don’t hurt yourself, nor go near the 
poison ivy. And don’t eat too much ; and 
come back in time to feed the chickens ; and 
don’t — Hold on. Wait a minute. I’ll give 
you a plate of cookies, Seraphine. Samuel 
likes them, you know.” 

They waited for the gift; and having told 
Master Dan what she thought of him, Katie 
now undertook to make him happy ; and neither 
of them ever forgot that first day together at 
the Blacks’ cottage. 

Seraphine was capable when she chose to be, 
and for children she always so chose. She pre- 
pared a delicious dinner, of which the principal 
dish was the berry-heaped shortcake ; and even 
she could scarcely wait for Samuel to appear in 
the lane, that they might begin. 


A YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST. 


81 


He approached rather slowly, not expecting 
anything more savory than bread and milk ; and 
was almost thrown off his balance by the onrush 
of a small girl in a pink frock, with flying curls 
and merry eyes, who regarded him curiously, 
and repeated, parrot-like, a lesson in which she 
had been carefully drilled : 

“ I’m your new little daughter, father Samuel, 
and please to tell me how you hke me ! ” 

But Samuel was too flustered to answer, even 
if little Dan had given him a chance. 

“ Yes, she is. That’s so. Ma wanted her, 
but Seraphine got her. And ma didn’t like it ; 
and Seraphine don’t care if she didn’t, cause ma 
has got me, an’ Seraphine hasn’t ; and do hens 
ever lay eggs on lean-to roofs ? Please to hurry 
up, for there’s shortcake for dinner ; and Seraph- 
ine feels flne as a fiddle now, and has got more 
to tell you than you can shake a stick at. And 

0 Samuel! I don’t want to go home, either. 

1 want to stay with you an’ Seraphine an’ Katie. 
Wouldn’t have to drive old cows, nor stir 
chicken-dough, nor pull carrots, nor — anything 
bad ” — 

Danny paused, rather from want of breath 
than language ; and taking a hand of each child, 
Samuel walked amazedly toward the cottage. 

With hair neatly brushed, and her old red 
wrapper exchanged for a fresh print gown, Ser- 
aphine met him at the door, her comely face 
bright with excitement. 

“Isn’t this wonderful, husband? Here have 


82 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


I always been wanting a little girl of my own, 
and now the Lord’s sent one right into my very 
arms. She says she can’t stay, but she’ll have 
to change her mind. I can’t never let her go. 
She shall have the front chamber, an’ every- 
thing on earth I can give her.” 

“ Slow, deary, tell me slow, so’s I can take it 
in. The boys said the boss had brought one of 
them fresh-airers, but — Hello, what a shortcake 
that is 1 I tell you, Seraphiney Black, if it 
wasn’t for them ‘ spells ’ of yours, there wouldn’t 
be a woman in Middle Valley could hold a can- 
dle to you for smartness.” 

That was the shortest “ nooning ” Samuel had 
ever known; and when it was over he re- 
marked : 

“Well, ’tis a long lane that has no turnin’. 
Things are on our side at last, Seraphine. 
First my garden wasn’t spoiled, though the 
boss’s was ; an’ he had the trouble of fetchin’ 
this little girl up here an’ we got her; an’ 
’twas him sprained his arm, not me; an’ I 
reckon things generally do even up if a body 
only waits a bit. But you’d best lie down 
awhile, deary. You mustn’t overdo.” 

“No danger now. Haven’t I a new little 
daughter to help me ? ” gayly returned the 
wife ; and at once asked Katie a multitude of 
questions, whose answers gave a very truthful 
picture of the child’s whole previous life. 

The story was deeply moving, because of its 
very simplicity. Mrs. Black had visions of 


A YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST. 


83 


Katie’s babies rescued from squalor, and set 
down among the daisies ; and the visions alter- 
nated with projects for accomplishing the 
transition. 

“ Because, you see, that’s what I came for : 
to find for myself how I could stow them. 
Though now I know I can’t bring them. 
Well, I’ve seen it, and I can tell them, and 
sometime I’ll do it ! Oh ! how I wish Mis ’ 
Jones had had my piece of your shortcake ! 
the minister man said I couldn’t eat much at' 
first, ’cause I wasn’t used; but I’m getting 
used fast.” 

Seraphine could not answer because of her 
tears; and both were startled when Danny, 
whom they had supposed asleep on the lounge, 
suddenly observed : 

“ Once there was a circus.” 

“ Yes, sonny. So there was.” 

“ I didn’t go to it. I wasn’t let.’* 

“ ’Twas a shame, me an’ Samuel thought. 
We went.” 

“Well, there’s goin’ to be another. Right 
to our own village. The pictures are on the 
fences an’ blacksmith shop. Men jumpin’ over 
six horses to once, an’ a monkey parade, an’ 
a clown, an’ rernosterous, an’ — an’ — things ! ” 

Seraphine’s interest had returned to home 
matters. Next to childhood she delighted in 
a “ show.” She replied, encouragingly : 

“Goin’ to be splendid, folks say. Every- 
body ’ll turn out then, haying or no haying. 


84 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


The boys told Samuel they were goin’, and you 
will, too, I guess.” 

“ No. I ain’t a goin’. Not a step.’ 

“ I should like to know why not ? ” 

“I sha’n’t never see the rernosterous, nor 
the clown, nor the elephant, nor nothin’.” 

Here Danny’s breast heaved, and Seraphine 
proffered him a cookie. But he shook his 
head dejectedly. 

“Well, maybe you aren’t hungry. Don’t 
see how you can be after such a dinner.” 

“ ’Tain’t that.” 

“ What then, sonny ? ” 

“ I’m going home a minute. I’ll tell you 
when I come back.” 

They watched him disappear up the lane, 
then each returned to her day-dreams; which 
presently passed into real dreams, and neither 
woke till a small hand plucked at Katie’s 
sleeve. There stood Danny, with a toy savings 
bank in his hand. He appeared both broken- 
hearted and determined. Katie’s arm went 
round him, promptly : 

“ Why, Danny, boy ! What’s the matter ? ” 

“You may as well smash it. I can’t.” 

“ But why ? What is it ? ” 

“ All the money I’ve got in the world is in 
there. Ma give me a penny just this morning. 
That’s there too,” dolefully. 

“ Oh, I see ! A place to put things where 
you can’t get at them. Well, best leave it as 
it is. Eliza mightn’t like it if you didn’t.” 


A YOUNG PHILANTHHOPIST. 


85 


“ Don’t you dast to tell her ! Don’t you ! 
If you do you sha’n’t ever see ‘ General Wash- 
ington ’ again. If a thing is yours, it’s yours, 
ain’t it ? ” 

“ I suppose so.” 

“ Then smash it, I tell you. I can’t stand it 
if you don’t do it quick, an’ I must — I must ! 
Something inside me makes me, though I hate 
it ! I’d ruther go to the circus. I’d ruther go 
to the circus a hundred times than do it once,” 
he finished passionately. 

Seraphine had waked and heard his demand. 
Though she knew him to be a miserly child, 
she began to suspect his meaning, and watched 
the affair without comment. So when Katie 
asked how she could break the bank open, the 
woman merely nodded toward a shelf, where 
lay a hammer and nail-box. 

When the tin house was in ruins, there 
rolled upon the floor a quantity of cents, with 
a sprinkling of nickels. There was also one 
dime, which had been polished to the last 
degree. Danny regarded the coins with a 
mournful gaze, and remarked : 

“You can count up an’ see if there’s 
enough.” 

“ Enough for what, Danny ? ” 

“ Why don’t you count ’em ? ” impatiently. 

The girl did so then ; arranging the cents 
in piles of ten, and the nickels by themselves. 
The dime she placed at the head of the little 
row, remarking : 


86 DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 

“ That’s like some processions I’ve seen. 
The ten-cent piece is the captain ; the nickels 
are the marshals on their horses ; the cents are 
the soldiers in the ranks. See them march ! ” 

“ Stop. Don’t play. Just count it, quick.” 

“ I have. There’s a dollar and fifteen cents.” 

“ Is it enough ? ” 

“ For what ? ” 

“To fetch one them babies, what sleeps on 
boards, and falls into the water sometimes.” 

‘‘ Oh I Danny, you little angel ! It’s plenty, 
plenty ! — enough to bring two whole babies, I 
believe, even if they are as big as Miranda ! ” 

“ Then fetch ’em. But don’t you dast to 
tell anybody till you get ’em. ’Cause, likely, 
ma wouldn’t let ’em come. She’d be afraid 
they’d make dirt, and she hates dirt like poison. 
So, don’t you tell ! ” 

“ I won’t. Not a word. Oh, you dear I ” 
cried happy Katie rapturously, cuddling the 
young philanthropist in her arms. 


2549 55 


ANNOYING MYSTERIES. 


87 


CHAPTER X. 

ANNOYING MYSTERIES. 

Long before time to leave off labor, Eliza saw 
Simeon coming home across lots. He walked 
as if he were suffering ; and she paused in her 
cutting out of the coarse overalls, which were 
the lad’s summer wear, to watch him ; then ex- 
claimed in dismay : 

“ What next ! First, father hurts himself, 
and goes trapesing off to New York, and brings 
home that ungrateful child; and she is the 
means of destroying all our vegetables, besides 
putting the mischief into those young cattle. 
Once they break bounds they’ll do it again. 
Then Eli comes in with his hand cut on the 
machine-knives and about ^crippled by it. It’s 
been such a dry spring the hay is getting too 
ripe, and — Well, Simeon, what’s happened?” 

The lad reached the window, and turned his 
face for her inspection. 

“I’m poisoned, ma.” 

“ If that isn’t the last drop in the bucket ! 
What made you do it? Did you wash in salt- 
and-water before you went to the field, as I 
bade ? ” 


88 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“No, I didn’t. The whole meadow’s full of 
it, and I didn’t believe ’twould do any good. 
Give me something to put on it, won’t you? 
It stings awful.” 

“ Next time put your didn’t in your pocket, 
and mind what you’re told.” 

“ I’m sorry, ma ; but I’m getting the worst 
of it, and I wish you’d fix me something, 
quick.” 

The boy was, indeed, in a pitiable plight. 
The poisoning had been done on the previous 
day; and his face was now swollen so that his 
eyes appeared but half open, while his hands 
were puffed and stiff. 

“ Dear, dear ! you’ll be no more help for a 
fortnight, at least. I don’t see what possessed 
you to do it now, while we’re so behindhand.” 

Simeon began to cry, and Eliza’s anger gave 
place to pity. 

“ There, lad, don’t do that. It will only make 
your eyes feel worse. I’m sorry for you and for 
myself, and I shouldn’t have spoken so sharply 
if I hadn’t been so sorely tried this day. What 
do you think? Seraphine Black has gone and 
bewitched that girl your grandfather brought, 
and coaxed her off to live at the cottage ! I 
call it right down impudent, just as I was plan- 
ning to make a woman of her. Well, Seraphine 
never did have any sense. There. Put this 
saleratus water all over you, and wet some white 
rags out of the piece-bag. It’ll cool you some. 
You always were a regular ‘catcher,’ and have 


ANNOYING MYSTERIES. 


89 


had everything going except the small-pox. Get 
that next, I suppose.” 

Simeon tried to laugh but could not, and 
groaned : 

“ That circus is cornin’ next week, too.” 

“ Oh, maybe you’ll be all right by then. Did 
you see little Dan ? ” 

“ Didn’t see anything but my own face, swelled 
out so.” 

“ He’s down at Seraphine’s too. You go and 
fetch him home. He’ll have to do more than 
feed the chickens, now you’re laid up.” 

“ All right. Shall 1 fetch the girl too ? ” 

“No. I don’t want any unwilling folks, though 
I’d made up my mind to do well by her.” 

When farmer Eddy came in from the field, he 
proudly announced that he was learning to use 
his left hand almost as well as his right one, old 
man though he was ; and that Katie’s defection 
to the cottage might result in good, after all. 
“ For I never saw Samuel take hold as he did 
this afternoon. * I don’t mind his rejoicing over 
our bad luck with the garden and so on if it 
makes him do two days’ work — at his rates — 
in a half one.” 

“ Sweet out of bitter again, father. I prefer 
my sweet without the tang, myself.” 

“’Tisn’t so wholesome, daughter. Where’s 
Simeon ? He was in trouble enough.” 

“All his own fault,” answered the mother 
briskly. The boy had now been gone some 
time, and the chickens were chirping to be 


90 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


fed. She cast an anxious glance down the 
lane as she moved swiftly about the kitchen, 
forwarding the supper work. 

The farmer fancied her glance was only for 
the despoiled garden, and her anger against 
Katie, so interposed: 

“ Don’t lay it up against the little girl, Eliza. 
She was just as ignorant of the country as I 
was of the city. Folks aren’t to blame for 
what they don’t know.” 

“It’s Simeon I’m thinking of. ’Twouldn’t 
make him suffer any more to. mind what he 
was told — just for once in a way!” With 
which she took her pails from the rack, and 
went to the barn. 

The old man followed slowly ; and in a few 
moments the chickens were filling their crops 
with the sweet food he gave them, while he 
finished Simeon’s regular duties. It was he, 
too, that when supper was over, and the mother 
would have sent the weary lads to bed, sug- 
gested that they should go down the lane and 
bring their brothers home. A visit to Sera- 
phine’s fascinating cottage would do them more 
good than sleep, he fancied. 

“ Well, I don’t object. Yet, first Danny, then 
Simeon, and now these two. If they overstay 
you’ll have to make the joui'iiey after them your- 
self, father.” 

“ All right, mother. But we’ll be home 
soon,” answered Reuben, already brightened 
by the prospect of the little outing. 


ANNOYING MYSTERIES. 


91 


Then the farmer took his place in the rocker 
under “ Mother’s Tree,” and Eliza joined him 
there. He had still much to tell concerning his 
trip to the city, and the quiet hour in the twi- 
light was infinitely restful to them both. At 
times like this, when the overburdened house- 
wife could forget her sordid cares, she felt that 
if circumstances had been different for her she 
would have been a gentler woman. 

When the talk was ended the farmer rose, 
saying : 

“ I’d like to do something for such as Dig- 
gleses’, if I wasn’t so ‘ land poor.’ But, hark ! 
Isn’t that the clock striking ? ” 

“ Yes. I wonder if the boys have come in.” 

Eliza hurried to the kitchen chamber to see, 
but descended swiftly. 

“ Father, the children haven’t come ! ” 

“ Haven’t they ? Don’t worry, daughter. 
I’ll try my powers this time ; and if I fail — just 
get out the town-crier ! ” 

He laughed and walked away, and she sat 
down on the porch to wait for him ; but pres- 
ently she heard the voices, approaching, and 
smiled to herself : 

“ Father’s as mild as new milk, yet what he 
says has to be obeyed.” 

When the party reached the porch Simeon 
was still missing, while Danny was lying upon 
his grandsire’s breast, who remarked : 

“ I found him asleep on the floor, so wouldn’t 
disturb him to make him walk.” 


92 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ The floor ! Much Seraphine knows about 
raising children.” 

“Yes, ma; and she’s going to let that Katie 
sleep right out of doors, on a rug on the grass. 
Yet there’s her nice front chamber that the girl 
could have if she wanted it. She doesn’t. She 
says it’s ‘ stuffy,’ and she never had enough out 
doors yet. She isn’t going to sta3^ She’s — ” 

“ Look out, Eli Eddy I You’ll be telling 
something first you know,” warned Reuben. 

“ What is there to tell ? where’s Simeon ? ” 

“ He wants to stay all night. Seraphine 
says he can lie on the lounge in her sitting- 
room, where she can hear him if he needs any- 
thing. She’s a masterhand to cure poison-ivy 
swellings. She’s covered him with buttermilk 
poultice, and if he isn’t a sight ! She says you 
haven’t time to fuss as she has, and Katie helps 
her. Seems as if that girl thought our Sim 
was one of her ‘ babies,’ the way she treats him. 
Moves soft as a kitten, and tells him jolly 
stories, and hasn’t laughed at him, not once.” 

Eliza was tempted to send again for her 
absent son, but for his sake refrained. So she 
only bade the others hurry to bed, immediately 
after farmer Eddy had offered their evening 
devotions. 

But the boys were not as quiet as usual, and 
talked so long that she called from the foot of 
the stairs : 

“ Reuben ! Eli ! Too much noise. What are 
you discussing so eagerly ? ” 


ANNOYING MYSTERIES. 


93 


“Nothing, ma. I mean — I can’t — I’d 
rather not tell,” answered honest Reuben. 

“ Eli, what is it ? ” 

“ Shut up ! ” came in a sibilant whisper from 
Reuben’s side of the room. 

“ What is it, Eli ? ” 

“ I can’t, ma. I dassent.” 

“Why not?” 

“ I promised Seraphine I wouldn’t.” 

This was the crowning trial of a trouble- 
some day. With indignant haste the mother 
mounted the stairs, and stood over her sons’ 
beds. Eli cowered beneath the light covers ; 
but Reuben regarded her steadfastly, with no 
symptom of yielding, though with no lack of 
respect. 

“ Ma, 1 would if I could, but you have always 
taught me not to break a promise. I wish I 
could tell you, I do with all my heart, but I 
promised not.” 

It cut the mother’s heart to be thus opposed, 
and in an apparently trivial matter; and her 
answer was stern: 

“ If you’d gone to bed right after supper, as 
you should, this would not have happened. I 
do not like it, sons ; distinctly, I do not like it. 
I wish I had not allowed you to go.” 

“Ma, don’t say that. As yet you don’t 
know what you’re talking about. That visit to 
Seraphine’s may turn out to be — ” 

“ Reuben, Reuben ! It’s you who’s blabbing 
now I ” cautioned Eh. 


94 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


“ No, I’m not. Say, ma, don’t feel bad. 
Maybe something’s going to be — and if it isn’t, 
and I told or raised false hopes — oh, dear ! I 
might break your heart.” 

“You’re doing that already,” said Eliza, and 
went her way below. 


INS UBORDINA TION. 


95 


CHAPTER XL 


INSUBOEDINATIOlSr. 


“ Mis’ Eddy, does havin’ what you’ve most 
wished for, yet never expected to come to 
pass, ever set you crazy? ” asked Samuel, who 
had visited the big house to consult its mis- 
tress. 

“ I never heard that it did.” 

“ Fact is, I’m worried about Seraphine ; yet, 
by rights, I don’t know whether I ought to be, 
or t’other way.” 

“ You’re always worried about her, aren’t 
you?” 

“ Well, you know yourself she’s sickly.” 

“ Stuff and nonsense. She’s hypo-ey. That’s 
all.” 

Mr. Black was too much in earnest to take 
offense. 

“ ’Twas three days ago that ‘ Captain Grand ’ 
chased Katie girl into our house, an’ my wife 
ain’t had a ‘ spell ’ since. She’s up mornings 
before I am, singin’ away like she used to when 
she was Seraphine Tuttle, an’ I went sparkin’ 
her. The little one sings, too, the cutest kind 
of songs ever you — ” 


96 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ She didn’t sing during the short time she 
lived with me.” 

“ She would if she’d stayed. She’d been 
bound to. Her whole natur’ is either sing or 
laugh. Why, the two are just like a pair of 
children out of school. Seraphine don’t ’pear 
any older than Katie does. Heads together, 
whisperin’, every time 1 come around. Got 
Simmy into it too. The poultices have took 
down the swellin’ so’s he’s got one eye open, 
an’ he’s figuring all the time ; yet soon’s he 
hears me, under his jacket goes the piece of 
paper, whilst he an’ wife an’ Katie look as if 
they had some great secret on their minds. 
There’s somethin’ a-foot, so sort of queer I 
really don’t know but that Seraphine really is 
just a mite — a teeny tiny mite — out of her 
wits. ’Twouldn’t be strange, would it, seeing 
she’s been an invalid so long ? ” 

“Nothing whatever that Seraphine Black 
could do would surprise me in the least,” an- 
swered Mrs. Eddy curtly. 

“Well, you’re always so druv, I hate to ask 
it ; but if you could spare time to step down 
the lane sometime to-day, an’ look the thing 
over, ’twould be a comfort to me. I’ve a high 
respect for your judgment ; and if you say it’s 
nothin’, why, nothin’ it is.” 

“ If Simeon’s so much better, he must come 
home. When he did walk over this morning, 
Katie was leading him, and both eyes were 
bandaged. I’ll make excuse to carry Seraphine 


INSUBORDINA TION. 


97 


some muslin to make up for that girl. But 
you needn’t worry, Samuel ; your wife isn’t 
deep enough to go crazy. She’s simply an 
overgrown child with a new doll. I’ll go.” 

So as soon as her dinner work was over, 
Eliza put on her afternoon gown, — a white 
cambric with pink flowers dotted over it, — and 
tied on her second-best sunbonnet. She was a 
fair, wholesome body, with a fresh color and a 
mass of soft brown hair ; and as she entered the 
cottage, somewhat flushed by exercise, Katie 
exclaimed, — 

“ O Mis’ Eddy ! how nice you look ! — just 
like one of the pink-and-white hollyhocks out 
there. I wonder if folks that live in the country 
always do seem like some flower. Do they ? ” 

“ Nonsense, child ; I try to keep myself clean 
— that’s all.” 

Yet she was secretly pleased by the compli- 
ment, and Seraphine hastened to deepen the 
good impression. 

“You’re that bees’- wax neat you always do 
look as if you’d just stepped out o’ the wash- 
tub, Mis’ Eddy.” 

“Small thanks to you then, Seraphine, if I 
do. But here’s some more muslin for Katie’s 
underclothes ; and do have sense enough to cut 
them big. She’s growin’ ; and no knowing 
when she’ll get more, for the boys say she’s 
going back to town.” 

Mrs. Black and Katie exchanged a meaning 
glance. 


98 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES', 


“ Yes ; I’m going, Mis’ Eddy.” 

Then Seraphine produced some crocheted 
lace, saying, — 

“I’m going to trim the things with this. 
There’ll be enough for all, I guess.” 

“ I hope you’ll do nothing so foolish. Better 
sell it at the county fair next fall, and send her 
the money.” 

“ I don’t agree with you. It’ll do my Katie 
more good to have, for once, something just 
plain pretty than the money would ; and I hope 
she won’t suffer for that.” 

“ There are none so rich as those who have 
nothing.” 

“ True enough ; but I’m terrible glad you’ve 
come, for I was going to see you to-night, to 
ask a favor. Will you lend or hire me old 
Joseph? ” 

“ Lend you my horse ! What in the world 
do you want of him ? ” 

“ I’ve a little business village-way, and I 
want to consult the minister about something. 
When you’ve answered that question, I’m going 
to ask another.” 

“Why, you haven’t been to the village in 
years ! Don’t I or the other neighbors always 
do your errands — and to suit ? ” 

“Yes, you’ve all been real kind; but this 
affair’s my own. Will you?” 

“ I’ll see when to-morrow comes.” 

“ That won’t do. I’d rather have Joseph and 
the light wagon, with Simeon to drive ; but if 


INSUBORDINA TION. 


99 


you can’t let them, I’ll step over to Mr. Wat- 
kins. He’s always glad to do anybody a good 
turn.” 

“ ‘ Step over ’ a full mile and a half ! Yet 
I’ve heard you boast you couldn’t walk the 
length of the lane without suffering for it.” 

“ Yes, I know; I’ve got past all that, though, 
thank the Lord. I say it with all my heart. 
I’m a changed woman, Eliza Eddy. The other 
thing I want is this : I want to hire the Pine 
Tree lot for four or five months. What rent 
would you ask for it? ” 

Eliza began to think that Simeon’s fear was 
not unfounded, and exclaimed, — 

“ What vagary is this ? The Pine Tree lot 
is a side-hill, rocky, with just enough grass for 
a fall pasture, and soil too poor to raise even 
hollyhocks.” 

“’Tisn’t everybody speaks so about their 
own land ; but I admire you for it, Eliza Eddy. 
If you don’t want to rent it. I’ll try Mr. Wat- 
kins for a piece of ground, as well as a rig. 
Both I must have, though not for posy-raising.” 

“ It isn’t even cleared. Indeed, I’d be glad 
to rent it for the cultivation. An experienced 
farmer might possibly get some sort of crop off 
it.” 

“ It’ll raise just the crop I want, though I 
wouldn’t have it cleared. It’s the prettiest 
spot in Middle Valley, ’cording to my notion — 
with the old woods, and the little Kit-Kat creek 
tumbling over the big rocks, an’ so sightly. 


LofC. 


100 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


There isn’t any maiden-hair brakes anywheres 
around like those Samuel fetches me from Pine 
Tree.” 

“ Humph ! If you didn’t keep so many pots 
of weeds and ferns standing about you’d have 
better health.” 

“ Maybe •, I don’t see as they hurt me, 
though. But that’s no more here nor there. 
Will you rent it to me?” 

Mrs. Eddy looked outward and upward to- 
ward the slope in question. Mother had loved 
the Pine Tree lot, which took its name from an 
immense tree crowning the peak of the hill. 

“ I should know what you want to do with it 
before I give an answer, Seraphine.”' 

“ I can’t tell you. Mis’ Eddy, yet. It’s for a 
good purpose. One o’ the grandest in the 
world, I believe. Will you? and for how 
much ? ” 

“ I don’t think I want to rent that piece.” 

But Mrs. Eddy was frightened by the effect 
of her refusal upon the other woman, who now 
seemed upon the verge of a “ spell ” much more 
disastrous than common. 

“ Why, Seraphine ! Is it so important as 
that ? Don’t look so queer. I’m speaking, 
really, for your own good. It is simply out of 
the question that Samuel should undertake to 
cultivate that field. His time belongs to us. 
Indeed, if he did as he should by us, even that 
garden patch wouldn’t be so flourishing.” 

“ Don’t let that hinder you. I’m not expect- 


INSUBOEDINA TION. 


101 


ing him to lift his finger on that lot. I’m 
managing this thing myself. I mean — how 
much would it be ? ” 

The owner named a moderate price, though 
it seemed large to the would-be tenant, who 
said, — 

“Wait a minute, till I ask Simeon some- 
thing.” 

A moment later the visitor heard a whispered 
conversation going on in the kitchen, and smil- 
ingly wondered if the young adviser would 
give judgment against his own mother. How- 
ever, when Seraphine returned to the porch, 
she announced, — 

“ He says we can do it.” 

“ Oh I Indeed ! ” 

“ Yes. ’ He’s done all my figuring. I’m not 
going into it blindfold. Shall I pay in ad- 
vance ? ” 

“No, Seraphine. I’ll wait to see what you 
do with the lot.” 

“ That won’t answer. You might change your 
mind. A lawyer must draw up a regular lease, 
and we’ll both sign it.” 

“ That’s all right. You understand business 
better than I thought. Yet you know, too, 
that I’m a woman who keeps her word.” 

“ If ’twas only you and me I wouldn’t want 
a better bond. As it is — oh ! how I hope 
things will turn out just as I planned ! ” 

Here Katie’s small finger warningly touched 
Seraphine’s lips. 


102 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“Ah, deary, I’ll take care. Well, I haven’t 
let any cat out the bag, nor kitten either. 
Now, about the horse and wagon. Can I have 
’em?” 

“ Yes. To-morrow, if you like.” 

“ First-rate. I’ll be ready for them as soon 
as I get my breakfast work out the way; and 
it don’t take long with Katie to help. Even if 
my family is bigger by two than it used to be ; ” 
and she nodded gayly toward Simeon, appearing 
rather timidly, lest his mother should compel 
his return home. However, she permitted him 
to remain over another day, and so act as driver 
for Mrs. Black on her unwonted journey. 

But Mrs. Eddy walked up the lane in a per- 
plexed frame of mind, and eagerly welcomed 
her father’s arrival at supper time ; relating the 
details of her visit, and concluding, — 

“ I really couldn’t say no ; but why she should 
want to trouble the minister puzzles me.” 

The farmer’s reply was delayed by the pecu- 
liar behavior of both Reuben and Eli. They 
were giggling, nudging each other, and making 
so many warning grimaces toward little Dan, 
that their grandfather took matters into his 
own hands. 

“Boys, if you can’t show respect to your 
mother when she’s talking, and can’t behave 
decently at table, you can leave it.” 

This was exactly the permission they craved; 
though Reuben flushed, and Eli answered 
rather hurriedly, — 


INS UBOEDINA TION 


103 


“ I’m sorry, grandpa. But the chores are all 
done; and if Seraphine’s going to the village in 
the morning, we’d like to step down and see 
her a few minutes. Fact, we must; ’cause you 
couldn’t spare us then, and ” — 

The mother interrupted sternly, — 

“ N o, sons. An extra pleasure is not a pun- 
ishment. When you see fit to confide in me it 
will be time enough for you to visit Mrs. Black. 
If I hadn’t promised to let Simeon stay and 
drive for her I would go myself, and fetch him 
home. After all, I more than half believe 
that Samuel was right, and that the woman is 
crazy.” 

“ O mother ! Don’t say that. Seraphine is 
all right — just the very rightest kind of right ; 
and do let us go. We have talked it all over, 
and we really must. Say yes, please.” 

But she remained firm in her refusal ; and 
Eli exclaimed sullenly, — 

“ You’ll be sorry some day; and we might as 
well go to bed.” 

So they hurried up the stairs, leading Danny 
with them. They seemed afraid to let him 
leave them ; and Reuben held the child’s hand 
so tightly that he cried out, — 

“ You quit hurting me, brother ! I’m no 
more a tell-tale than you are.” 

“ Hush ! ” ordered Eli, and fairly pushed the 
youngster up the stairs. 

Heretofore the mother’s word had been law, 
and there had been no law-breakers ; therefore. 


104 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


it did not occur to her that her sons would ever 
openly disobey her. She was glad that they 
were in bed, and the troublesome day over; 
and for a time she again sought the bench 
beneath “ Mother’s Tree,” where she, as always, 
found rest and peace. When she finally re- 
turned to the house, it was with the fear that 
she had been a “ little hard on Daniel’s boys,” 
and the resolution to make amends in some 
way. 

“ I’ll give them an hour in the morning to 
see that silly woman, if they so desire,” she 
thought. 

But again was her tenderness to be turned 
to hardness. Again were the white beds undis- 
turbed. Despite her strict command, the lads 
had gone to the cottage ; and an act that to 
some other mothers would have seemed but 
youthful folly, to Eliza Eddy appeared an 
insult. 

“ Oh ! my sons, my sons ! And you have 
taken even my baby with you ! ” 

Then she sought her own room to await 
their return. 


A SUMMER DRIVE. 


105 


CHAPTER XII. 

A SUMMER DRIVE. 

It was two hours beyond the lads’ usual time 
when they hurried up the lane, and saw their 
mother sitting by her window. Eli clutched 
Reuben’s sleeve, imploring: 

“ Don’t. Let’s wait till she gets tired out and 
goes to bed. I’m afraid to meet her now.” 

“ I’m not. We’ll go straight to her and tell 
her just how it was.” 

“ If we do, I shall say more than I want to — 
yet.” 

“ Then you keep still, and I’ll do the talking. 
I guess I’m not scared of my own mother.” 

Yet, despite this manly assertion, Reuben’s 
heart did sink a little as he entered Mrs. Eddy’s 
presence. 

“ Mother, I’m terrible sorry we had to disobey 
you, and that we overstayed. We had to go ; 
and you’ll be pleased with us when you under- 
stand it all, by and by. We didn’t mean to 
be gone but a few minutes, only we got talking.” 

“ Good -night, Reuben. Good-night, Eli. Come, 
Daniel.” 

That was all. The elder brothers stood, for 


106 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


a moment, almost as much shocked by her reti- 
cence as she had been by their disobedience. 
Then they silently climbed to their own cham- 
ber, where Reuben declared: 

“ I sha’n’t be able to sleep a wink to-night, I 
feel so sorry she’s angry; ” then laid his tired head 
on the pillow, and at once forgot his troubles. 

At breakfast no mention was made of the 
evening’s events, and Mrs. Eddy very quietly 
directed Reuben: 

“As soon as you have finished your other 
chores, harness Joseph and drive him down to 
the cottage. Hitch him to their tie-post, and 
come directly back. See that there is sufficient 
'provender for an all day’s trip put in the box. 
Then take your sickle and scythe to the far 
meadow. Samuel will mow three fields to-day, 
for I’ve hired the machine to a neighbor as soon 
as we’re through.” 

The latter part of her speech was addressed 
to farmer Eddy, as Reuben hastened away, de- 
termined to obey her this time to the very letter ; 
and just as he returned the minds of all were 
diverted by the arrival of a neighboring farmer, 
who was driving past and brought the Eddys’ 
newspaper from the post. 

He was full of talk concerning the wonderful 
circus-posters displayed about the country, and 
finished by saying : 

“ It’ll be the biggest show ever came to Mid- 
dle Valley. I plan to take all my youngsters, 
and suppose you do, too, farmer Eddy ? ” 


A SUMMER DRIVE. 


107 


“ Oh I I reckon they’ll be on hand,” he an- 
swered genially. 

But to his surprise the lads’ faces evinced 
anything save delight, white Danny burst into 
a wail, and started for the barn at his greatest 
speed. After a moment his brothers followed 
him there, and Reuben attempted some comfort. 

“ Don’t you mind, child. There’ll be others.” 

“ ’Twon’t be this one ! ” 

“ Look here, boys. Seraphine hasn’t started 
yet. If either of you want to take your money 
back, now’s your chance.” 

“ Don’t want to,” retorted Eli ; “ though nine 
chances to one that ‘ Smarty ’ is nothing but 
some old tramp, not worth all we’ve given for 
him.” 

“ Whoever he is, he needs it more than we 
do, Eli ; ” but finding small compensation in 
this for the woe of that present moment, Eli 
silently departed for his field of labor. 

Then Reuben lifted Danny from the hay, 
where he had thrown himself face downward, 
and asked : 

“ Little shaver, how’d you like to go to the 
village with the rest ? ” 

“ She — I couldn’t — you know it.” 

“ Stop crying. Be patient. I’ll go ask. If 
I whistle for you, come.” 

The mother was in her dairy, and to this 
request opposed another question: 

“ Reuben, do you think he deserves such a 
treat? ” 


108 


DAISIES AND I)IGGLESES\ 


“ Yes, mother, I do. So will you think, by 
and by, when you know all.” 

“ I’ve no time for fixing him up, and I doubt 
if Seraphine would bother with him.” 

“ If she wouldn’t, Katie would. Please, 
mother. I’ll dress him and all. I’ll do his 
chores, too.” 

“ Very well.” 

Whereupon a joyous whistle sounded across 
the yard, and Danny promptly responded. But 
when he appeared, it was the cautious mother 
herself who prepared him for his trip, having 
small faith in her elder son’s powers as nurse- 
maid ; and a little later the now happy child was 
speeding towards Seraphiue’s cottage of delight, 
clothed in his Sunday best, and with a new 
quarter-dollar in his hand, which he was to 
“ spend just e’zactly as he pleased.” 

It did seem to impatient Katie as if her adopted 
mother would never stop “ fussing,” and really 
set off on this wonderful trip. But at last she 
was ready and came out to the wagon, anxiously 
remarking : 

“I do hope no accident will happen to us. 
I’m all worked up.” 

But Katie comforted : 

“ Now, don’t you worry. Things most always 
happen right. Why, just you think ; a little 
while ago I hadn’t heard of you, nor Middle 
Valley, nor the daisies, nor — anything. Now 
I know you all, and you’re my new mother ; and 
we’re going to be able to do it, and won’t every- 


A SUMMER DRIVE. 


109 


body everywhere just be surprised? — just you, 
that has always been ‘spelling it’ till I came, 
and just plain Diggleses’ Kate ! My ! ain’t it 
grand ? ” 

“ How will we sit ? ” 

“ I know,” answered the ever-ready Katie. 
“ You sit in front, ’side of Simeon. It’s proper 
you should ride nearest the horse. Danny and 
me will be on the back seat. Is the basket of 
dinner put in? And your green parasol? and 
the jacket for Simeon, so he won’t take cold in 
his poison ? Can you get in alone ? Sha’n’t I 
help you? Simeon ought to, ’cause that’s the 
way the men do to their women in New York. 
My newsboys, even, wouldn’t let a lady get in a 
street-car without helping.” 

“ You keep still, Katie Diggles. You talk 
too much. You talk so much a body can’t hear 
himself think.” 

“ Some ‘ thinks ’ wouldn’t be worth hearing. 
But there, boy, don’t you fret. You’ll improve. 
I shall be around here some time, and I’ll tend 
to fhat.” 

But now they were off, Simeon slapping the 
reins over old Joe’s back, while Seraphine ner- 
vously expostulated: 

“ Oh, Simmy, do take care I You shouldn’t 
drive so fast. He might get to runnin’, and 
then what should we do?” 

“ Why, stop him, I s’pose,” laughed Katie 
from the rear. 

“ More danger of his stopping than of his 


110 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


running,” said Simeon ; and the animal’s gait 
proved his statement correct. 

What a ride that was ! It seemed to each 
one of the little party that she or he had never 
been so happy. To Katie the fences appeared 
to fairly fly past them ; and she held out her 
arms to catch the rush of sweehscented air 
against them, exclaiming : 

“ Oh, mother Seraphine I Why don’t you un- 
pin your shawl, and let this lovely breeze blow 
right straight through you?” 

“Well, child, I suppose because I’ve no 
notion of taking the pneumonia at this season 
of the year. Besides that, we’re cornin’ to the 
village. It’s only half a mile away now. Sit 
up erect, Danny, and pull your jacket down, 
and keep your hat on tight, and do your ma 
credit. We want to be prepared when we get 
there, and not all in a fluster with hurry.” 

Which advice, delivered earnestly, set Katie 
off into a fresh peal of laughter, that nobody 
minded in the least, and which was only checked 
by small Daniel demanding : 

“ I should like to know when we’re going to 
eat dinner.” 

“ Dinner ? Why, you’ve just had your break- 
fast. Yes, I know. I rather fancy the smell 
of that lunch-basket, myself ; but I’m afraid it’ll 
be some time before my nose gets any nearer 
the smell,” answered Simeon, cutting Joe so 
smartly that he fairly broke into a trot. 

Seraphine put up a warning hand. 


A SUMMER DRIVE. 


Ill 


“ Sh ! sh-h ! The minister lives in this very 
first house in the street. Boards with old Dea- 
con Luther. I don’t know what’s best to do. 
He might not be in ; and if he wasn’t, I could 
go on and see the Squire first. Though I did 
plan — Katie ! Child ! Where are you going ? ” 
Before the wagon stopped she had leaped out, 
and run up the path to the Deacon’s front door, 
where, presently, she gave a resounding rap on 
the ancient brass knocker. Then a venerable 
gentlewoman appeared at the door, which she 
opened but slightly, inquiring : 

“ Don’t you know better than to knock like 
that while we have sickness in the house ? ” 

“ How should I ? I want to see the minister.” 
“Well, you can’t. He’s too ill to be pes- 
tered with children.” 


112 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


CHAPTER XIIL 

IN THE mNISTEK’S STUDY. 

As the door closed, a familiar voice was heard 
asking : 

“Who is it, Miss Luther?” 

“ Nobody but a little girl.” 

“ What sort of little girl ? ” 

“ Oh ! I didn’t notice. Just plain girl. You 
lie still, dear man, and I’ll bring you your 
cliicken broth. It’s so bght in here I don’t 
wonder you’re restless.” 

Katie caught a glimpse of black skirts pass- 
ing through an inner hallway, and leaped in at 
the window, so temptingly convenient to the 
porch. An instant later she stood in a darkened 
room beside a reclining chair, whereon, amid a 
wilderness of pillows, lay her friend, the minis- 

“ Why, Katie ! ” 

“ Oh ! you poor dear ! Whatever is the mat- 
ter?” 

“ Just a little trouble with my lungs. Noth- 
ing worth mentioning.” 

Then they heard steps returning along the 
passage, and Miss Luther reentered, bearing a 


IN TEE MINISTERS STUDY. 


113 


tray with a bowl of soup, which she nearly 
dropped at sight of Katie. 

“ Why, child, how came you here ? ” 

“ Through the window, ma’am.” 

The lady frowned, and the clergyman inter- 
posed : 

“ She hasn’t had the benefit of Middle Valley 
training. Aunt Maria. This is the girl from 
Diggles’ Court.” 

“ Ah, indeed ! Maybe she, too, would like a 
bowl of broth.” 

“No, I’m not hungry now; and I’m in a 
hurry. If you’ll stay out a minute I’d like to 
talk to the minister, about a — a secret.” 

Miss Luther was shocked by such plainness 
of . speech, yet instantly departed, with only a 
brief warning to her invalid not to overtax him- 
self. Then Katie explained all that Seraphine 
and she had planned, while the minister listened 
eagerly, assenting to her wish, as she ended her 
story : 

“ Now, I want to run out, and fetch them all 
in, every one, so we can fix it all up and get 
things going.” 

So they all came in ; and Seraphine, being a 
person of one idea at a time, was so full of her 
own projects that she treated the gentleman’s 
illness with a lightness that amused him. 

“ But, my dear Mrs. Black, I’m helpless, you 
see. Though it grieves me not to be able to 
aid you, I don’t see how I can.” 

Seraphine did not understand that this was 


114 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESEB'. 


refusal. Having accomplished so much, she felt 
that nothing would be allowed to interfere with 
her complete success. When she had finished 
her argument, she rose, remarking : 

“ Well, that’s the way it is, and I’ve a deal of 
business on hand. I’ll go now to the Squire’s. 
Good-by. Come, Simeon, come, Daniel — and 
Katie.” 

But Katie did not follow, for the invalid had 
detained her by a touch upon her arm and the 
enthusiasm of his face. 

“ My child, there is one way ! If I should 
give you a letter to a gentleman in New York, 
could you find the address and deliver it 
promptly ? If so, I believe it all can be arranged 
just as well as if I were present, and it would 
save the delay of letters to and fro. Do you 
know where Number — West Thirty-fourth 
Street is ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed. I know that street from end 
to end. I used to sell my papers up there — 
when I had any.” 

“ Please find Miss Luther, and ask her to 
come to me for a few minutes. I must consult 
her, and enlist her sympathies. I know she 
will want to help, and so will the Deacon.” 

The old gentleman came to the study with 
his sister ; and their guest laid the case before 
them, with such eloquence that they promised 
every assistance in their power, — even the 
immediate conveyance of Katie to the village 
and to the care of her adopted mother. 


IN THE MINISTER'S STUDY. 


115 


“ For it wouldn’t do that so valuable a 
messenger should be lost in Middle Valley, to 
begin with,” laughed the genial Deacon. 

“No fear of that, sir, but I’d like the ride all 
the same,” answered the happy child ; and 
from his now unshaded window the minister 
watched them drive away together, while Miss 
Luther remarked : — 

“ This good news has done you more good 
than all your medicine.” 


116 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


CHAPTER XIV. 

HOME TO DTGGLESES’. 

It was eleven o’clock in the morning, the 
very busiest hour in the day for the manager 
of a certain Aid Society. Indeed, he was so 
crowded with work that he directed the office 
boy: — 

“ Admit nobody else until I order you to do 
it.” 

“ Yes, sir. All right, sir ; but there’s a 
little girl here who says she must see you. She 
won’t take no for an answer.” 

“ Keep her out. Can’t attend to her yet.” 

“All right, sir.” 

The boy turned from the inner office, but, 
catching a glimpse through the window of a 
passing street parade, paused for an instant to 
watch it. 

This was Katie’s opportunity. While his 
gaze was elsewhere she bounded from her chair 
in the ante-room, and slipped between his back 
and the door-frame. 

“ Oh ! what a stupid boy ! ” she exclaimed, 
advancing towards the manager’s desk, and 
nodding her head by way of further salutation. 


HOME TO DIGGLESES\ 


117 


“ I had to come, you know. I had to give you 
this letter with my own hand. So here it is ; ” 
and she placed the envelope between the gentle- 
man and the page he was inscribing. 

It was an ill-bred action, but Katie had had 
scant training; besides, the handwriting was 
such that it secured her instant pardon. 

“ Hiram Castle I From the Reverend Hiram 
Castle. Well, a message from him is certainly 
a passport to me, though I hope he isn’t asking 
aid for any protege just now. I’m very short 
of funds, and the demand — ” 

“I guess you’d better read it, sir,” said 
Katie, with a touch of pride. 

As he broke the seal the little girl dropped 
upon the floor, and kicked off her stiff shoes. 
The stockings followed. She had come, clothed 
in Seraphine’s gifts, though much against her 
will. Rolling the obnoxious articles together, 
she sprang up again, ready for anything which 
should come. But the manager pondered so 
long over the letter that she coughed to remind 
him of her presence. Then he looked up and 
laughed, seeming a different person from the 
care-burdened individual who had forbidden her 
entrance. 

“ Child, you’re right to remind me that I am 
wasting time. I was thinking how wonderful, 
yet simple, the whole affair may be. Is this 
Mrs. Black a wealthy woman ? ” 

“I — don’t — know. She’s a dear little cot- 
tage, and plenty to eat, and lots of ‘ tidies ’ and 


118 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


things. Sometimes she’s quite ‘ spelly,’ though 
not since I came. Now I want to go home to 
Diggleses’, and will you tell me everything 
about it ? ” 

“Yes. Mr. Castle writes that 1 can trust 
you completely. That’s a fine character to 
have, my child ! It will take two or three days 
to arrange all that he wishes; but 1 think you 
can safely include twenty in the party. I will 
hurry matters up ; and you come back here the 
day after to-morrow morning, at nine o’clock 
sharp.” 

“ I’ll be here. Good-by, sir ! ” 

He had intended to ask if she had car fare, 
or even a lunch provided ; but she gave him no 
time ; nor did the nimble little feet wait for the 
slowness of any street car, though in Katie’s 
pocket was now not only her original fifty 
cents, but a whole silver dollar that Seraphine 
had given her, and she could have ridden had 
she chosen so to do. 

She almost flew over the pavement, along the 
avenues and cross streets', and in an incredibly 
short time had reached the old wharf, where 
there was nobody in sight, not even a baby. 
Then up the dingy court she darted, singing as 
she went, and calling cheerily to the unseen 
toilers within, who recognized the voice in- 
stantly, and dropped their tasks with a glad 
answering cry : — 

“ Katie ! Our Katie ! ” 

Yes, it was she. Hurrying from room to 


ROME TO DIGGLESES\ 


119 


room, carrying her joyful tidings everywhere, 
kissing the mothers, hugging the children, and 
gathering up a batch of babies, which “ Smarty ” 
and some idle lads helped her convey to the old 
pier. Once there, it seemed to her she had 
scarcely been away, save for the fine new 
clothes and the tormenting shoes that proved 
it. It was there, too, in the familiar place, 
when night had fallen and labor ceased, that 
they settled the matter, when Katie had told 
her story to as many as could draw near enough 
to hear it ; though it would have been a slow 
business, had not the policeman on that beat 
himself joined them to listen, because he, too, 
loved Katie, and was glad to find her at home 
again. 

“Well, then, everybody, I’ve told you how 
big and splendid and daisy-ish it is, and how 
you’ll be as happy as the sun itself. So now, 
let’s pick out the twenty who can go, and do it 
quick. Oh I it breaks my heart I cannot take 
you all — all. Who first ? ” 

“ Mis’ Jones, ’count of her cough,” suggested 
a bowed old woman, whose days were numbered, 
and thought it mattered little where they ended. 

“ Hunchback Ned ! ” cried another. 

The lad protested shamefacedly, though the 
color leaped to his thin cheek, and his eyes 
brightened. 

“ Ned, of course. I counted on him. Who 
next ? ” 

To the honor of Diggleses’ it was that very 


120 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES'. 


little selfishness was shown ; but there was 
such length of argument, as to who most needed 
the outing, that the policeman felt it wise to 
interfere : 

“ I’ll fix it for you folks, if you want.” 

“ Aye, aye.” 

So he drew a pad from his pocket, and wrote 
down the names of all who had been decided 
upon, together with an unlimited number of 
babies ; which, being so small, could be added 
like sums in arithmetic, four in a column equal- 
ing one adult. 

“ For they’ll not take up any room, and the 
captain won’t ask any fare for them on his boat. 
Who else ? ” said Katie. 

To complete the number, the officer suggested 
the drawing of lots. 

“ That’ll make short work of it, and is accord- 
ing to Scripture. So now, let’s at it, and then 
move on. Time honest folks were abed and 
rogues a-jogging.” 

It was done as he suggested, and he was 
given the precious list to keep till needed; 
after which the tenants of Diggleses’ turned 
homeward, to dream of green fields and bab- 
bling streams, and to thank whatever stood to 
them for God, because of a small human child 
named Katie. 


THE HAPPY ENDING. 


121 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE HAPPY ENDING. 

One morning when farmer Eddy entered the 
dairy, Eliza met him with the exclamation: 

“ Father, 1 believe tlie millennium is coming I ” 

“ I hope so, daughter ; but what are the new 
signs of it?” 

“ Seraphine has been here, and, of her own 
accord, carried home all the week’s washing 
10 do.” 

“Hmm. Wasn’t that in the original con- 
tract ? ” 

“Did either of the Blacks ever live up to 
their contract ? I don’t know what’s changed 
the woman so. She’s active and full of fun as 
that Katie was, herself, ^ — yet whom she doesn’t 
miss, apparently ; and Reuben says her cottage 
has been cleaned from top to bottom.” 

“ Samuel seems worried about her. Says she 
has drawn out all of her bank money.” 

“Why should she, father? and why should 
she want to hire the Pine Tree lot? or send 
that child back to the city without asking your 
consent ? ” 

“ I can’t say.” 


122 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“Heigho! Here’s Eli again. That’s the 
third time he has made some excuse to come 
back to the house since he went to the field this 
morning. Well, Eli, what now?” she called 
from the low doorway. 

The boy jumped in a guilty sort of fashion, 
but he could not banish the joyous expectancy 
from his face. 

“ Oh ! nothing much, ma. Reuben, he just 
wanted something out of the old lane corn-crib, 
and I was fetching it.” 

“ Tell Reuben to remember his needs before 
he goes so far away. You are both wasting 
time.” 

“Yes, ma;” whereupon the lad ran toward 
the old crib, which commanded a view far 
beyond the turning of the lane ; of the Blacks’ 
cottage ; and high above that, of the much dis- 
cussed Pine Tree lot. The “ lot ” was invisible 
from the big house or its grounds ; and for sev- 
eral reasons both Seraphine and the boys were 
glad that day that this was so. 

When Eli repassed the house on his return 
to the hayfield, he was still running, and his face 
was even more flushed with excitement. 

“ There’s something more than industry the 
matter with that boy I The mere delight of 
raking hay wouldn’t affect his ankle-joints like 
that ! ” thought Eliza. 

Indeed, there had been something out of 
common at U plands for more than a week ; and 
the mystery had deepened ever since Diggleses’ 


THE HAPPY ENDING. 


123 


Kate had departed whence she came. And 
when soon the family gathered about the din- 
ner table, there were many smiles and nudges 
exchanged between the four lads ; till, at last, 
Eli and Simeon, on one side, kicked the shins 
of Reuben and Danny, on the other, with such 
force that the latter’s high chair tipped back- 
ward, and the mother interfered. 

“ Reuben Eddy, it’s time this nonsense 
stopped. There’s something underhand going 
on, and I insist upon knowing what it is.” 

“Boys, shall we tell her?” asked Reuben, 
glancing from one brother to another. “ Tell 
her part, any way ? ’’ 

They nodded affirmatively. 

“Well, ma and grandpa, as soon as you’ve 
finished I wish you’d walk down the lane 
with us. We’ve something to show you.” 

“ A whole lot of somethings,” added Simeon. 

“ White,” said Eli. 

“ Like a circus. Only better. And why we 
wouldn’t spend our money for the real one. 
’Cause we hadn’t any. We’d given it all to 
these — I mean, to fetch a man and buy his 
clothes. Oh ! pshaw ! what am I saying ? ” 

“Well, never was a circus as white as 
them I ” cried Reuben, taking the words from 
Simeon’s lips. 

“ What’s up, lads ? ” asked the farmer, 
smihng at their eager faces. 

“ I should say tents were up, grandpa.” 

“ Tents ? Where ? ” 


124 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“ Pine Tree lot.” 

“Wh-a-t?” 

“ Fact, ma. Come and see.” 

Eliza’s mind worked rapidly. If, as her 
sons declared, there were tents upon the Pine 
Tree lot, if Seraphine had taken all her savings 
for this extraordinary folly — whose purpose 
she could not guess — why, the truth could no 
longer be put aside : the woman had become a 
maniac, and should be promptly consigned to 
some safe retreat. 

When the meal was over the elder Eddys 
followed the excited lads down the lane, to its 
turn by the old corn-crib, where the sight burst 
upon them. On the sunlit Pine Tree lot 
gleamed a dozen white tents. A few workmen 
were still moving among these open-air homes, 
putting the finishing touches which would make 
them perfectly secure ; while by the bar-way, 
at the foot of the slope, stood Deacon Luther’s 
great wagon waiting to carry these strangers 
away whence they had come. 

EKza’s face turned very white, as she asked, — 

“Sons, is it — is it — that dreadful circus — or 
another — right on mother’s own beloved hill?” 

“ No, indeed ! A thousand times better. It’s 
for the folks from Diggleses’, that Katie went 
to bring. To-night as many are coming as the 
tents will hold. Seraphine did it all herself — 
or she began it. Now she’s most pestered to 
death with all the folks ’round, who want to 
help as soon as they hear of it. Yet it was our 


THE HAPPY ENDING. 


125 


own Danny made the very first offering. True. 
He was the foremost of us all. But, hello! 
There are Seraphine and Samuel waving to us. 
They want us to come down to the cottage and 
talk it all over. Seems as if we never could 
get it all explained, doesn’t it?” 

But as they moved onward down the lane, 
Eliza’s thoughts were still troubled. 

“ Boys, I don’t see why you couldn’t have 
told me, why it should have been such a secret. 
Seraphine has much to make clear.” 

She was quite willing so to do ; though first 
she bade the lads run up the hill and satisfy 
their curiosity, while she placed her best rocker 
on the porch for her mistress’ use. Then she 
pointed with pride to a line full of snowy linen, 
fluttering in the clothes-yard. 

“ There, Eliza Eddy, I want you to have a 
little bit of vacation this week. Some of the 
folks coming may need some of your time. Or, 
so I hope. Now, I’ll tell; ” and beginning with 
the day of Katie’s arrival, she gave a graphic 
picture of her own thoughts and actions up till 
that moment. 

There were tears in the narrator’s eyes when 
she had finished, and in Eliza’s as well; but 
the latter was always practical, and asked, — 

“Well, Seraphine, now that you and the 
neighbors have gotten yourselves into this 
scrape, how do you propose to feed your 
tenters? How many are coming? Shall I be 
allowed to lend a hand in that part ? ” 


126 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


“Yes, Eliza. I counted upon you for that. 
And I should have told you, right off, only 
there’s something me and the boys hope — if 
maybe — I wouldn’t want you disappointed — 
I — oh ! dear I I do believe that of all the 
happy folks who will come to the Pine Tree 
lot this night you will be the very happiest.” 

Simeon came leaping down the hill, cry- 

ing,— 

“Oh I it’s wonderful! Beds and chairs in 
all ; and a stove in one I Say, Seraphine, won’t 
it do for ma to go up there now, before the 
tenters come ? ” 

“Best wait tiff sundown, I guess. It’ll be 
cooler then.” 

As Seraphine had said, the story of Katie 
and the Pine Tree lot had spread through all 
that countryside ; and the Eddy household was 
but one of many which visited the attractive 
place that same evening. Nor came anybody 
empty-handed, so that the little canvas-walled 
“ store-room ” was full to overflowing long 
before the expected great picnic-wagon of the 
Deacon’s appeared in the distance. , 

At sight of it, Reuben Eddy’s tanned face 
turned pale, and he slipped his strong young 
arm about his mother’s waist protectingly. At 
which she marveled and smiled, making no 
further comment. 

Oh ! the cheers that hailed the arrival of the 
strangers I and the happy voices which tried to 
answer the salute of welcome ! 


THE HAPPY ENDING. 


127 


Cried Seraphine, — almost beside herself with 
joy, — 

“ Katie I Katie I Oh, my Katie I ” 

For there she was, in all the glory of her gay 
pink frock, poised on tip-toe upon the high 
driver’s-seat, as if just ready for a spring. Then 
the wagon stood still, and she began her human 
distribution, — 

“ There, Mis’ Jones ! Hand me up Toddles ! 
I’ll toss him out ! Here, you nice lady, yonder ! 
catch a baby ! ” 

Limp and incapable as ever, away through 
the air flew Toddles, amid a chorus of “ Ohs ! ” 
.and “ Ahs ! ” as many a motherly arm out- 
stretched to break an imminent fall. 

‘‘ Good enough ! Here’s another ! Miranda 
— round and soft, and such a dear! Going, 
going, gone I ” 

With a squeeze of affection, wLich would 
very seriously have disturbed a less phlegmatic 
infant, Miranda was kissed, uplifted, and 
heavily dropped into the very grasp of Samuel 
Black himself. 

“ Hold on, Katie I You aren’t going to rain 
babies on us, are you ? ” 

To have seen the child’s face in that hour, 
would have been a benediction and an inspira- 
tion for a lifetime. But when all the rest had 
been helped from the wagon, and had begun to 
climb the hill toward their new canvas homes, 
there yet remained standing by the wheel one 
poor creature, over whom the small maid 


128 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


fluttered in an agony of anxiety ; and at whom 
more than one of those welcoming country 
folk cast a startled glance — then caught their 
breath in wonder. 

One moment Reuben felt his mother sway 
in his embrace, and turned his face from the 
sight of her emotion. The next she had re- 
leased herself, and put hej: own arms around 
“ Smarty’s ” shoulders. 

Those who heard it never forgot the com- 
passionate tenderness of her voice as she cried : 

“ Daniel — my husband ! ” 

He shivered and shrank, but the shock of 
delight pierced to his clouded brain : 

“ Why — why — Eliza ! 


CONCLUSION. 


129 


CHAPTER XVL 

CONCLUSION. 

An old man’s fall from a cherry-tree and a 
penniless child’s unselfishness seem small 
matters to lead to great results. Yet with 
God nothing is trivial. 

The Pine Tree Camp proved the greatest 
blessing which had ever been sent to Middle 
Valley, nor would a hundred circuses have 
equaled it in perpetual interest. 

In gratitude for her husband’s return, Eliza 
Eddy donated the hill to the tenants of Dig- 
leses’ for a permanent summer home ; and the 
people were never tired of discussing this 
marvelous story, which they had pieced out 
from the fragments he could now remember, 
and their own imaginations. He had been in 
the water many hours after the wreck of the 
Navigator, but had been rescued at last by a 
passing foreign vessel, and carried to a distant 
port. Fever followed his exposure ; and 
though his bodily health was restored, his brain 
remained clouded. On its return trip the 
same ship which had saved him conveyed him 
back to New York, where he drifted into Dig- 
gleses’, and became Katie’s charge. 


130 • 


DAISIES AND DIGGLESES\ 


Soon the Middle Valley people realized that 
their countryside had been greatly enriched by 
the arrival of these humble folk who had come 
among them so empty-handed. Did one need 
a farrier, or a worker in leather? 

“ Send to the Pine Tree Camp for blacksmith 
Cole, and tell that sick-looking Pole that my 
harness wants mending.” 

Was any housewife overtaxed? 

“Never mind. One of the women from the 
Camp will be glad to lend a hand ; ” and most 
capable hands they proved. 

The sewing which farmer womenfolk find so 
little time to accomplish seemed a trifle to these 
seamstresses from Diggleses’ ; and thus another 
need was supplied. 

But the end of summer came, fall winds 
began to blow, and it was evident that the 
holiday must be accounted over. Then there 
arose a question in Eliza Eddy’s mind which, 
after consultation with her wisest friends, she 
answered by the erection of several cottages 
upon her own broad lands. 

Wherever there was an especially attractive 
spot a little house was built ; and Katie saw to 
it that always the merry Kit-Kat zigzagged so 
as to water a tiny garden behind the dwelling. 
Into these new homes, so inexpensive, and yet 
so comfortable, some family from Diggles’ 
Court was promptly moved, there to take root 
and flourish. 

Of course this was expensive ; and when the 


CONCLUSION. 


131 


carpenters’ or painters’ bills came due, there 
was, sometimes, still a brief dismay in Eliza 
Eddy’s money-loving soul ; but she had only to 
lift her eyes to her own Sailor Dan, sitting 
opposite, to be glad again, and to feel that even 
to her last dollar in the bank, or the last acre 
of her land, she could never give enough. 

As for Katie — she is almost too happy to 
live. The first love and loyalty of her heart is 
to Diggleses’, whose population is forever shift- 
ing, yet is eternally the same — a type whose 
joy and sorrow are her own. But almost as 
dear is Middle Valley; and like a pendulum 
she vibrates between the two points, blessing 
each. Of herself she laughingly remarks : 

“ I have so many homes I haven’t any ; and 
though I have no money in my pocket, I am 
the richest girl in all the world.” 











SEP 12 1W9 



1 COPY DEL. TOCAT.DIV. 

SEP. 12 1902 
SPP- 17 Ipor; 


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